This is The Marshall Project - Cleveland’s newsletter, a twice monthly digest of criminal justice news from around Ohio gathered by our staff of local journalists. Want this delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to future newsletters.
Bodycam policy may change for Cuyahoga County deputies
A Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 Cleveland investigation has prompted Cuyahoga County leaders to reconsider its policy that blocks the release of body camera footage involving sheriff’s deputy shootings.
The sudden change came Feb. 5, just as the news outlets were poised to publish its investigation into the shooting of a teenaged boy in Cleveland by a deputy assigned to the sheriff’s Downtown Safety Patrol.
For months after the October shooting, the sheriff’s department, citing the ongoing investigation, refused to release bodycam videos or detailed records of the incident.
A spokesperson said county law department attorneys approved the footage release after completing its review of the videos. The spokesperson also said a new policy regarding the timely release of body cam footage is now being considered.
Critics want the sheriff’s department policy to resemble those in Cleveland and Akron, which require body camera videos to be made available to the public within seven days of a use-of-deadly-force encounter. Read our story here:
In response to the reporting, calls have grown stronger for a countywide policy to release deputy body cam footage. Read the News 5 Cleveland story here.
– Mark Puente
Who is ICE putting in Ohio jails? One county won’t say
Based on the legal advice of federal officials, Geauga County Jail officials will not release records that detail who is inside its facility awaiting deportation proceedings.
The Geauga County Jail is one of two jails in Ohio contracted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to admit people suspected of being in the country illegally.
Seneca County Jail officials have provided The Marshall Project - Cleveland with the past six years of monthly ICE invoices.
Monthly invoices from Seneca County show ICE paid $90 a day per detainee, contributing about $2.2 million toward the sheriff’s $2.8 million annual budget. The bills include names and the number of days each detainee spent in jail — at a time when immigration attorneys, civil rights groups, family members and journalists seek to understand the complex workings of the federal government’s murky immigration enforcement system and cooperation from local officials.
Seneca County, located about 50 miles south of Toledo, also hosts an online “inmate locator,” with immigrant detainees charged as fugitives from justice. Geauga County has no online portal to locate incarcerated people.
In an email to The Marshall Project - Cleveland, the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office said Ohio law prohibits the release of records shielded by two federal laws: the Privacy Act of 1974 and a 9/11-era Records Rule, originally enacted to conceal the names of people allegedly involved in terrorism held in New Jersey county jails.
“We have been advised by legal counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security [DHS] that the release of requested records would be a violation,” a records clerk said.
The withholding of records in the early weeks of the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort mirrors similar legal tactics across the country. A Michigan lawsuit filed last month by the American Civil Liberties Union alleges that “ICE instructs these county jails to withhold these records in response to state-law records requests, rendering most information about these detained immigrants completely secret. A huge aspect of ICE detention is hidden in a black box.”
– Doug Livingston
Federal judge supporting Celebrezze also handed Dottore lucrative cases
When Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze fights misconduct claims in March tied to her relationship with court-appointed receiver Mark Dottore, one of her character witnesses will be a federal judge who awarded Dottore and his company millions of dollars in fees in federal court.
Celebrezze’s attorney recently issued a subpoena to Senior U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko and Chief Magistrate Lynn McLaughlin-Murray of the Cleveland Municipal Court.
The subpoenas state each person can either appear in the disciplinary hearing March 31 in Columbus or submit a letter by Feb. 10, records show.
Boyko made headlines in 2018 when he tried awarding Dottore and his company a $2.4 million bonus after the company recovered $59 million for investors in a Ponzi scheme. The bonus was on top of the $9 million Dottore’s company already earned.
Boyko said Dottore’s “success is unprecedented,” but an appeals court “largely overturned” the bonus in 2020. The appeals did allow Dottore to charge higher rates, and he earned about $414,000, federal court records show.
Court records show that Celebrezze approved nearly $500,000 in fees for Dottore Companies LLC between 2017 and July 2023.
Boyko did not respond to a request for comment.
The misconduct counts against Celebrezze, originally filed Sept. 26 with the state Supreme Court by the Ohio Disciplinary Counsel, came more than a year after The Marshall Project - Cleveland detailed how Celebrezze accepted several divorce cases and appointed Dottore and his company as receiver.
Celebrezze has already admitted violating numerous judicial codes of conduct for failing to recuse herself from a divorce case involving Dottore.
For more details on our investigation into the relationship of Celebrezze and Dottore, read our story here.
– Mark Puente
‘Investigate This!’ offers insights for journalists reporting on deaths inside jails, prison
For nearly a year, Marshall Project staff writers Brittany Hailer and Mark Puente investigated how Glen Williams Jr. and Fred Maynard died while in custody at the Cuyahoga County Jail.
In addition to publishing their groundbreaking coverage, The Marshall Project has created a toolkit for other criminal justice journalists that offers guidance on what steps to take when they get a tip about a death or multiple deaths in their local jail or prison. Specifically, Hailer walks reporters through the various “receipts” they can use to verify what ultimately led to a fatality behind bars.
The toolkit also includes:
- Critical context from our senior data reporter Anna Flagg on the Death in Custody Reporting Act
- A free illustration that journalists and community storytellers are welcome to use in their coverage of this issue
- A list of expert sources on deaths behind bars
These resources are provided through our Investigate This! initiative, which shares reporting toolkits and criminal justice datasets to support accountability journalism in local communities. Email us if you have any questions or feedback about this program.
Advisory committee formed to support The Marshall Project - Cleveland
The Marshall Project - Cleveland has established an Advisory Committee of community leaders to expand its reach, strengthen its impact, and support its mission of high-impact investigative journalism.
Acting as ambassadors, the 13 members will champion the role of investigative journalism in civic life and advocate for a more transparent, effective, and humane criminal justice system. To learn more about our committee members, read more here.
Around the 216
- The Ohio Supreme Court is considering a request by the Columbus Dispatch to determine if victim protections contained in Marsy’s Law apply to on-duty police officers. Columbus police cited the law in redacting the names of two officers targeted by gunfire during a 2023 encounter. Court News Ohio
- A man who was placed in a medically induced coma after being shot by an off-duty Cleveland police officer in 2021 has settled his lawsuit for an undisclosed sum. Cleveland.com
- Child & Family Advocates of Cuyahoga County, a group that helps 1,500 children involved in the local court system, spoke to a County Council committee about the need for more resources to boost volunteer recruiting efforts. Signal Cleveland
