CLEVELAND, Ohio-Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze (pictured), a Democrat on the bench since 2009 and a former administrative judge of the court, resigned from the bench on Monday after being charged in Common Pleas court with tampering with records, a third-degree felony that came not as an indictment but an information filing by Democratic County Prosecutor Mike O’ Malley.
Cuyahoga County is a Democratic stronghold by all accounts.
Under Ohio law, a judge is automatically disqualified from acting in his or her official capacity while a felony charge is pending. Celebrezze’s current term ends in January 2027.
Community activists, who picketed O’Malley at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland earlier this year, say they are watching the case, and that they do not trust O’Malley, the county prosecutor since 2016. They say he lied when he told Black leaders that he would do right by the Black community if elected in 2016, and that he is an overzealous prosecutor who targets Black elected officials, community activists and now women in his pursuit of Judge Celebreeze. Corrupt White men in power who do illegal wrongs, including some county judges like Common Pleas Judges John O’Donnell, John Russo and the late judges Michael Russo and Joe Russo, get afree pass from O,’Malley, activists have said, and research suggests.
The Celebreeze criminal case has been assigned to Common Pleas Judge Lauren Moore, who is Black, and Celebreeze, at her arraignment on Tuesday, pleaded not guilty and was issued a $5,000 bond. Her defense attorney, Ian Friedman, is a prominent defense attorney and former president of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.
ALLEGED ISSUES RAISED AGAINST JUDGE CELEBREEZE
Case Steering: Among other allegations, Celebrezze, 54, is accused of manipulating the court’s random-draw assignment process to manually assign lucrative divorce cases to herself. This, however, is common place in the county’s general division common pleas court where judge shopping and manipulative judicial assignments are routine and a violation of the random-draw process mandated by the Ohio Rules of Superintendence, due process be damned.
Conflicts of Interest: While presiding over these cases, she appointed attorney Mark Dottore as a receiver—a position that allowed him to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in court-approved fees. An Investigation and video surveillance of the two kissing allegedly reveal that they were in a “close personal” and “very possibly romantic” relationship, which she failed to disclose, and which she initially denied.
Fraudulent Records: The criminal charge of tampering with records stems from a Jan. 19, 2023, journal entry where she falsely stated she had been randomly assigned to a case that she had actually manually assigned to herself. Why it took O’Malley nearly three years from January 2023 to get Celebrezze charged is questionable, sources have said, and an indication that the prosecution might be politically motivated, or steeped in sexism. Data show that O’Malley’s office is sinister too and that his assistant county prosecutors routinely help White judges tamper with records against Black defendants who are sometimes denied indigent counsel in violation of their statutory and constitutional rights. One assistant county prosecutor actually convinced a judge to issue an order against a Black defendent threatenting jail and a mental institution if the activists picket and if the defendant seeks a motion to dismiss a frivolous prosecution on speedy trial grounds and after prosecutors and the county clerk’s office fixed an indictment and increased the charges for police and O’Malley’s office. This same assistant county prosecutor, a White man, cooperated with one judge when she lied on record and said a defendant who had passed a mental evaluation requested another one in hopes of getting the county’s mental health clinic to manipulate the outcome. And when defendants, most of them Black, file writs with the Ohio Supreme Court and affidavits seeking removal of county judges from cases for conflict or bias, O’Malley’s office represents them.
Retaliation Against Whistleblowers: In December 2025, Cuyahoga County approved a $400,000 settlement with her former judicial assistant, Georgeanna Semary, who alleged Celebrezze retaliated against her for complying with public records requests that exposed the judge’s ties to Dottore.
Current Status (December 2025)
Criminal Charges: She is currently facing one third degree felony count of tampering with records.
Resignation & Suspension: Celebrezze resigned from the bench on Dec. 22, 2025, after she was criminally charged.
Disciplinary Recommendations: The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct, an arm of the Ohio Supreme Court, which is majority Republican and led by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, previously recommended a two-year suspension from practicing law, citing an “extensive pattern of misconduct” and “manipulation and deceit”. That case is awaiting a final decision by the state’s highest court.
Federal Investigation: An ongoing FBI investigation has subpoenaed court records dating back to 2008 to examine billing practices and appointments.
Activists Demand Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Reforms
Community activists of Cleveland are calling for a consent decree for Common Pleas Court reforms between the county and the U.S. Department of Justice, one similar to the consent decree in Cleveland for police reforms that remains pending in federal court behind several high profile police killings of Blacks since 2012 like 12-year-old Tamir Rice and Tanisha Anderson.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most-read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former President Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO’S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
editor@clevelandurbannews.com (Kathy)
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