Another conviction in Girard court overturned by appeals court

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

For the second time in a month, the 11th District Court of Appeals has overturned a conviction in Girard Municipal Court.

The two cases are nearly identical in that the appeals court said Judge Jeff Adler failed to require the Girard prosecutor to provide a factual basis for conviction of a defendant before the judge found the defendant guilty.

In the ruling released this week, the appellate court ordered the June 23, 2016, resisting-arrest conviction of Kenneth K. Cochrane Jr. of Trumbull Avenue in Girard to be removed and the charge dismissed.

Judge Adler accepted Cochrane’s no-contest plea and found him guilty.

“The transcript of the proceedings shows no inquiry into the circumstances of this crime was made and no explanation was provided,” the appeals court said in the ruling.

Atty. Michael Partlow appealed the Cochrane conviction on the grounds no factual basis was given. Without it, the conviction was “not supported by sufficient evidence,” according to documents.

The appeals court agreed, citing a 1984 Ohio Supreme Court ruling that says a “no-contest plea may not be the basis for a finding of guilty without an explanation of circumstances.”

Michael Bloom, Girard prosecutor, conceded Judge Adler erred in not asking for a factual basis before finding Cochrane guilty, the appeals court ruling said. But Bloom believed the remedy was to send the case back for a re-sentencing, rather than dismissal.

Two of the judges on the three-judge appellate court panel said the charge needed to be dismissed. Appellate Court Judge Diane Grendell agreed that Judge Adler erred but disagreed that the error required dismissal of the charge.

Neither Judge Adler nor Bloom responded to a phone call seeking comment.

The court ruled the same way June 30, saying Judge Adler erred May 26, 2016, while finding John A. Giordano of North Street in Girard guilty of animal-cruelty without requiring the prosecutor to recite a factual basis for the conviction.

In the Giordano case, Girard police arrested Giordano in February 2016 after a video surfaced in which a man appeared to beat a dog outside a North St. Clair Street home.

Judge Adler found Giordano guilty after Giordano pleaded no contest to the charge. Judge Adler also ordered Giordano to forfeit the dog, a Rottweiler, and pay $684 in fines and court costs.

But after the June 30 appellate court ruling, Judge Adler dismissed the case against Giordano and vacated Giordano’s conviction, according to the Girard court’s online docket.