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In November of 2018, the podcast Serial released its critically acclaimed third season. The aim: to shine a light on the American judicial system, highlighting the benefits and detriments of how our system works. To accomplish this feat, the Serial team spent a year in Ohio at the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Judge John Russo, who was the administrative and presiding judge during the time Serial was at the court, and Public Information Officer Darren Toms join Chief Judge Don Myers to talk about their experience with Serial and the importance of a transparent judicial system. Timestamps 1:45 - Introduction 5:25 - Sarah Koenig and transparency in the Courts 13:45 - What was recording like? 26:10 - Community feedback and reactions to the podcast 33:50 - Serial in hindsight 40:49 - Why doing the podcast was the right move Links Serial Podcast Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas
The Ohio Debate Commission (ODC) organized a virtual event moderated by journalists featuring four candidates vying for two Ohio Supreme Court seats: Justice Sharon Kennedy and challenger John P. O'Donnell, a judge on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, and incumbent Justice Judith French and challenger Jennifer Brunner, a judge on the 10th District Court of Appeals and former Ohio Secretary of State. Multiple media outlets across the state will air that event prior to Election Day or it can be watched online here.rnrnNormally, judicial races do not receive much attention from the media or the public. However, the high-profile confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanagh - and the impending nomination of a Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the recently deceased Ruth Bader Ginsberg - have highlighted the critical role judges and the courts play in our democracy. The Ohio Supreme Court race is considered by many to be a crucial statewide race on the Ohio ballot. How will the election affect Ohioans and the outcome of the cases facing the Court next year, including the redrawing of legislative maps? What did we learn from the ODC event about the candidates and how they might decide cases?rnrnJoin us as three distinguished retired judges analyze the ODC event and discuss the future of the Supreme Court of Ohio.
In episode 63 of Civilly Speaking, host Sean Harris speaks to Judge John O’Donnell, a judge in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, about the new rule 26.
On The Record: The Podcast of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Judge John J. Russo looks back on his six years as Administrative and Presiding Judge of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. He served as AJ/PJ from January 2014 to December 2019.
Blogs and podcasts are a growing fixture on our social landscape. There are now more than 750,000 podcasts produced and over 48 million people a week listen to a podcast. Estimates are that billions of people worldwide read one or more blogs on the internet. This is a fact that courts face along with all government institutions. When grappling with the media, courts can no longer deal simply with the city newspaper and local television reporters. Bloggers and podcasters demand equal treatment with traditional media outlets. What advice do we have for courts that are facing the challenge of social media’s blogs and podcasts? Darren Toms and Stephen Thompson talk about how courts can deal with the growing phenomenon of social media’s focus on the justice system. This is a fascinating podcast episode for listeners interested in courts, court administration, social media, blogs, and podcasts. Leave a comment or question about the episode at clapodcast@nacmnet.org. Guest Speakers A child of the northeast, Stephen Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston University, served a tour in the Peace Corps teaching English as a foreign language in West Africa, and earned a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He worked for more than twenty years as a newspaper reporter and editor, most of it at the now-defunct Tampa Tribune, before he was hired by the Sixth Judicial Circuit to be its public information officer in 2014. Darren Toms is the public information officer and community outreach coordinator for the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Ohio, where he works with the media and community groups on a regular basis. Darren is the president-elect of the Conference of Court Public Information Officers (CCPIO) and recently hosted the organization’s annual meeting in Cleveland. Prior to joining the Court in 2013, Darren spent 16 years at Newsradio WTAM 1100, the news-talk station in Cleveland, as news director, anchor and reporter. Darren also spent seven years in television news. A graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Darren is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Do You Want to Learn More? Access to link to these articles to learn about blogs and podcasts. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-poll-the-jump-in-popularity-in-podcasts/ https://www.podcastinsights.com/podcast-statistics/ https://discoverpods.com/why-are-podcasts-popular/
On The Record: The Podcast of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court is developing a pilot Domestic Violence Docket designed to help both the victim and defendant avoid potential future incidents. Judge Sherrie Miday and host Darren Toms discuss the docket, how the funding was obtained, and what the Judge hopes will be a model for other courts.
Episode Notes Is the move to purge inactive voters in Ohio a worthy effort to keep the voter rolls straight or a botched job that should be halted? We start the latest episode of This Week in the CLE by looking at Frank LaRose’s at once enlightened and seriously flawed effort. This Week in the CLE is a podcast discussion and analysis of the latest news by the people who bring it to you, the reporters and editors at cleveland.com. We try something different this week, by focusing on just one or two reporters per segment, for a deeper dive into the news stories they covered. Statehouse reporter Andrew Tobias stands in for the first segment, talking about the voter purge as well as a proposal to streamline voter registration, at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Special Projects Manager Laura Johnston and I also talk with Andrew about a proposal to use fentanyl seized by police as the drug for Ohio executions, an idea with no traction, mainly because it is illegal. And we talk about a growing sentiment that all of the controversy around capital punishment in Ohio might make it obsolete. Andrew also helps us understand why Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder appears ready to block Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposals for keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. In a piece of what could be good news, we talk with Andrew about Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague’s ResultsOHIO program, which builds in some innovative safeguards for taxpayers before the state pays for experimental programs, like one in Northeast Ohio aimed at reducing the chances that people leaving prison will commit new crimes. In our second segment, Laura and I talk with court reporters Eric Heisig and Cory Shaffer about breaking news and some thoughtful reporting they have published of late. Cory takes us through a discussion about former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Lance Mason, who murdered his wife, and Eric explains the ramifications of a settlement by a couple of opioid makers in a huge set of lawsuits filed in Northeast Ohio. We talk with Cory about his recent story about a Cuyahoga County judge who is costing taxpayers a lot of money because he is moving his docket along much more slowly than other judges. Cory also discusses his story about a recent sentencing in the courtroom of Judge Daniel Gaul, who was featured prominently in the Serial podcast about Cuyahoga County. Eric has written a bunch of stories about people accused of plotting terror in Ohio and discusses the difficult decisions that federal investigators face when trying to determine the line where free speech ends and criminality begins. He wrote a story on the topic after sitting down to chat with U.S.Attorney Justin Herdman. A lawsuit filed in federal court by a Cleveland police officer feeds another discussion with Eric. The officer claims Cleveland is compelling police who work extra hours to take comp time instead over overtime pay. Cory explains how the chief judge in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court is considering a run for the Ohio Supreme Court, as is former Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. And Cory closes the segment with his take on the guilty plea of the former Cuyahoga County jail warden and his promise to cooperate with criminal investigations there. Reporter Mary Kilpatrick and Public Interest and Advocacy manager Mark Vosburgh join me and Laura to talk about how the next seven months likely will determine Cleveland’s prosperity over the coming decades. I wrote a column about the topic, and Ray Leach, CEO of JumpStart, visited us this week to share why he feels optimistic. The conversations about Cleveland prosperity involve a lot of thought about poverty, and Cleveland City Hall reporter Bob Higgs rings in with a recent proposal from City Council President Kevin Kelley to provide attorneys to parents in poverty who are facing eviction. And we wrap up the podcast with Troy... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Episode Notes So many states seem to get by just fine without front license plates on cars, but in Ohio the debate about them rages, with law enforcement saying the plates are vital for crime solving and auto lovers saying they’re ugly and unnecessary. License plates are where we begin the latest episode of This Week in the CLE, the podcast discussion of the news by the best-informed news team in Ohio, the reporters and editors of cleveland.com. Politics Editor Jane Kahoun takes the lead on the license plates and also explains the goal for The Flyover, a newsletter we launched this week to talk about politics in the heartland, where voters will decide the next presidential race. Cuyahoga County beat reporter Courtney Astolfi outlines the statements of Cuyahoga County Sheriff Cliff Pinkney when he finally answered questions about the embattled jail. He said he was excluded from many of the decisions that should have been his to make, which raises a question of whether he was a victim of manipulation by administrators or someone who was duped into not doing the job prescribed in state law. Criminal Justice editor Kris Wernowsky explains how the investigation that Pinkney promised in December - of the jail warden’s withholding of food from inmates and other actions – never happened and likely will not. Kris also explains why a Cuyahoga County judge threatened to hold jail administrators in contempt of court because inmates were not showing up for court. Public impact editor Mark Vosburgh lays out the Editorial Board’s thinking in taking the extremely rare step of opposing a proposed tax increase. Kris talks about why bicyclists in Northeast Ohio and elsewhere are increasingly frightened of sharing the road with cars, and he discusses the week’s most-talked-about story, about the sentencing of a 79-year-old woman to 10 days in jail because she fed stray cats. Federal courts reporter Eric Heisig explains why Parma Police and the Cuyahoga County prosecutor tried to criminalize social media satire and how the satirist could win compensation for the legal overreach. Courtney takes us into Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, where a top official of the Regional Transit Authority was charged with stealing benefits. She also describes how RTA might add buses to its most popular routes. Headlines this summer described an across-the-board income tax decrease that Ohio legislators say they gave to Ohioans, but Jane explains how the Legislature’s action since January actually has increased taxes for people on the lower end of the economic scale. Cleveland City Hall reporter Bob Higgs lays out the case of a landowner who claims Cleveland built a park near Progressive Field that effectively stole the land and wants millions of dollars in compensation. Jane takes a look at a recent poll showing Ohioans oppose the heartbeat bill the Legislature passed this year to restrict abortion in the state. The poll also shows strong support in the state for universal background checks for gun buyers. The traffic camera debate never seems to end in Ohio, and Jane provides detaisl on the latest battleground. Wine expert Marc Bona wraps up the podcast with a look at 25 years of Vintage Ohio and how Ohio winemakers have steadily improved. He predicts that Ohio wines will compete with the best in the not-distant future and offers advice on how best to sample wines that the Vintage Ohio wine event in Lake County. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Episode Notes This week we use Independence Day as the reason for a special episode of This Week in the CLE, in which we celebrate the spirit of debate central to the founding of this nation by having a debate about a topic of big interest in Northeast Ohio -- Lake Erie wind turbines. And, with July 4th being about the founding of a new nation and government, we use the holiday as a reason to discuss what is happening in another new form of government, the one we voted into place in Cuyahoga County a decade ago. A criminal investigation of that government is more than 18 months old, and the reporters who have covered it explain how it started and where it stands. Okay, so our maybe the connection to July 4 is a bit contrived, but that doesn’t make the discussions any less entertaining or informative. The cleveland.com team brings passion to these conversations. Regular episodes of the This Week in the CLE podcast feature unique discussions about the news by the people who bring you that news, the reporters and editors at cleveland.com. We publish new episodes most Thursday evenings, so that you can listen during your Friday morning commute. Because July 4 is a Thursday, we will publish this week’s abbreviated news episode on the morning of Wednesday, July 3. For this special episode, the wind turbine debate features columnist Mark Naymik as well as reporter Pete Krouse, who has been writing about the turbine proposal for years; Laura Johnston, who has been paying attention to opposition to the turbines by recreational users of the lake in her role as coordinator of our rockthelake.com website; and Kris Wernowsky, whose expertise in wind turbines comes from covering the issue in Pennsylvania as a reporter before he joined Cleveland.com. The discussion about the Cuyahoga County investigation involves Mark and Cuyahoga County beat reporter Courtney Astolfi, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court reporter Cory Shaffer and crime reporter Adam Ferrise. They are the only reporters in Northeast Ohio who have been on this story at every turn, and no one understands the case better than they do. We’ve been publishing This Week in the CLE for a few months now and would love to know how you think we are doing and what we could do better. Do the regular news episodes give you the summary and analysis of the news that you want? Would you like to see more special episodes devoted to longer discussions of significant topics? We’re thinking about bringing in newsmakers for discussions. Does that interest you? Let us know by sending an email to special@cleveland.com. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
On this episode of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon is joined by William Binney, former highly placed intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency turned whistle-blower who resigned on October 31, 2001, after more than 30 years with the agency. It is being reported that the National Security Agency has quietly shut down a system that analyzes logs of Americans' domestic calls and texts, according to a senior Republican congressional aide, Luke Murry, who is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's national security adviser. If true, this halts a program that has touched off disputes about privacy and the rule of law since the September 11 attacks. It is reported that the agency has not used the system in months, and the Trump administration might not ask Congress to renew its legal authority, which is set to expire at the end of the year. Is this true, and does it matter?More than 80 people were arrested last night during a protest in East Sacramento, California. They are protesting the findings of the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office regarding Stephon Clark's police shooting death. DA Anne Marie Schubert said Saturday that no criminal charges will be filed against the two officers who shot and killed the 22-year-old last year, saying, “[W]hen we look at the facts and the law, and we follow our ethical responsibilities, the answer to that question [of whether a crime was committed] is no. And as a result, we will not charge these officers with any criminal liability related to the shooting death and use of force on Stephon Clark.” Is this a surprising decision, and what are the options going forward for the family of Clark and for the residents of Sacramento? Attorneys for Timothy Loehmann, the Cleveland police officer who shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, filed a lawsuit yesterday Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court seeking to overturn an arbitrators decision to keep him off the force. The city is making a similar court challenge to an arbitrator's decision that is expected to allow Alan Buford, who shot and killed 18-year-old Brandon Jones (who was shot during a struggle with police after a reported break-in at a store, but a police spokesman said there was no weapon found at the scene), to return to his old job. Both cases went before arbitrators, whose decisions are often the final word in such disputes. Both disputes would also require judges to find significant errors in the judgment of the arbitrators, and that is a legal long shot, according to labor and law experts interviewed by cleveland.com.The family of dual US-Saudi citizen being held in Saudi Arabia believes he has been tortured. It is being reported that Dr. Walid Fitaihi has been beaten, tortured and jailed by the Saudi government. The US State Department confirmed Fitaihi's detainment in Saudi Arabia and that it has raised Fitaihi's case with the Saudi government. Fitaihi is a physician who came to the US in the 1980s for school and then worked here. He went back to Saudi Arabia in 2006 to start a hospital, which his family built. He would periodically come back to the US for business. He was detained in November 2017 at the Ritz Carlton hotel, along with other prominent Saudis, his lawyer says. How concerned should we be about this action being taken by the Saudi government?GUESTS: William Binney — Former highly placed intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency turned whistle-blower who resigned on October 31, 2001, after more than 30 years with the agency. John Burris — Lead attorney and founder of the Law Office of John L. Burris. He is primarily known for his work in the area of civil rights, with an emphasis on police misconduct and excessive force cases. Talib Karim — Attorney and executive director of STEM4US.
Judge John J. Russo is the presiding judge of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, in Cleveland. During his five years as the presiding judge, he has developed a passion for employee engagement, and he believes court leaders should have an open-door policy that invites input from all employees, not just from judges and court administrators. Listen to Judge Russo talk about how he has changed the court’s culture and runs his court like it’s a Fortune 500 company.
On The Record: The Podcast of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
After nearly three decades on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court bench, Judge Janet Burnside retired at the end of 2018. Judge Burnside discusses her career, the justice system, and what advice she has for young attorneys.
On The Record: The Podcast of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
The Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court hosts a number of mock trials during the year, the biggest being the Ohio Mock Trial District Competition, which is organized by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. Jessica Paine, the CMBA's Director of Community Programs, talks with "On The Record" host Darren Toms about the competition and why the partnership with the Court is so important for the students.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court has it's own drug lab and runs hundreds of thousands of tests every year. Administrator Shannon Gray talks with Darren Toms about the lab and its dedicated workers.