Former visiting judge in Trumbull and Mahoning counties Curran died Wednesday

Staff report

CLEVELAND

Judge Thomas P. Curran, 83, who presided over cases in Trumbull and Mahoning counties on assignment from the Ohio Supreme Court, died Wednesday.

Among the most notable cases he handled locally was his 2006 decision in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that Warren killer Danny Lee Hill was not too intellectually disabled to be executed for the 1985 murder of Raymond Fife, 12.

An appeal of Judge Curran’s ruling went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in January put the death penalty back on the table after a Cincinnati-based U.S. appeals court took away the death penalty earlier. The matter is still pending.

Judge Curran also handled civil cases in Trumbull County more than a decade ago involving former Niles Police Chief Bruce Simeone and Girard Police Chief Anthony Ross.

Judge Curran also handled cases in Mahoning County, including ones involving defendants who participated in a 15-person theft ring in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, much of it involving hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment such as motorcycles and four-wheelers stolen over several years.

Judge Curran was born in Cleveland and began his legal career as a trial attorney in the criminal division of the U.S. Justice Department in Washington, D.C. He continued in the Justice Department under Robert F. Kennedy as assistant U.S. Attorney until 1968, when he returned to Cleveland and entered private practice.

In 1983, he started his own law firm, where he practiced until 1994. He was a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge from 1994 to 2002. He retired as a judge in 2016.

His funeral will be at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Church of the Gesu in University Heights.