CLEVELAND, Ohio – Judge Timothy Grendell is prepared to ask Geauga County commissioners for $300,000 for his legal fees in his fight to avoid being suspended from the bench.
The probate and juvenile court jurist was scheduled to go to the commissioners Tuesday and request the money. Grendell is seeking the funds to pay attorneys to represent him in disciplinary proceedings before the Ohio Supreme Court.
“That’s a lot of money,” said Commissioner James Dvorak. “It is something the judge got himself into. And now, he wants the public to pay for it. I have to say, I’m uncomfortable with this. But then, I’ve been out-voted before.”
Last month, the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct urged an 18-month suspension of Grendell’s law license, with six months dropped if he avoids any allegations of misconduct. The board, made up of attorneys and judges from across the state, based its recommendation on how Grendell handled cases in his court.
A suspension would mean Grendell would be forced from the bench. The state’s high court will review legal briefs on the matter in the coming months.
In documents obtained by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer through a public records request, Grendell said the commissioners have the authority to authorize outside counsel to “assist the court/judge in defense of an action in which the court/judge is involved in as a party.”
Grendell said his attorneys are charging more than $200 an hour to represent him. The attorneys specialize in representing judges and lawyers who are accused of wrongdoing.
A message for Grendell left with the probate and juvenile court was not returned Monday. Attempts to reach the other two commissioners, Ralph Spidalieri and Tim Lennon, were unsuccessful.
One of Grendell’s attorneys, George Jonson, told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer that the request is not uncommon.
“If a county prosecutor punches a guy at a high school football game on a Friday night, that is another matter,” Jonson said. “If it arises from a prosecutor or a judge’s work, then the governmental authority has a decision to make about whether to pay.”
In the documents to the commissioners, Grendell briefly summarized his case. He denied wrongdoing and said he based his decision on one of the key allegations against him on the word of a mental health expert. He said none of his decisions in the cases under review were appealed.
State authorities have questioned Grendell after he jailed two teenagers in May 2020 who didn’t want to see their estranged father amid a custody dispute during the pandemic. The boys, aged 13 and 15, were arrested on a Friday evening and not released until the following Monday.
“He put a 15- and a 13-year-old boy in juvenile detention for three nights for failing to visit with their father during a global pandemic,” said Joseph Caligiuri, the state disciplinary counsel pressing the case against Grendell, in February during his opening remarks in a hearing to the Board of Professional Conduct.
“How can that possibly be in the best interest of the children?”
Caligiuri said not only did Grendell turn a blind eye to the boys’ suffering, but he took steps to cover up his own misconduct. In a filing, Caligiuri’s office called Grendell a “bully who abused his power [and] abandoned his role as a neutral advocate.”
Grendell said in a statement last month that he made the decisions in good faith to serve the children’s best interest, having determined they were victims of “the distorted influence of years of parental alienation.”
In addition, Grendell is accused of violating a conduct rule that says judges are not to voluntarily appear to testify before state lawmakers. It took place when he went to the Ohio Statehouse in 2020 and spoke in support of a bill that his wife, then-Rep. Diane Grendell, co-sponsored. He closed his court early so he could travel to Columbus.
In 2018, Grendell butted heads with the county’s auditor, Charles Walder, who began demanding that the court submit more detailed records when it sought county funds, according to court records. Grendell viewed the directive as Walder exceeding his authority.
The dispute between the two officials and their employees grew to a street-side confrontation in June 2019 that resulted in Grendell threatening to hold a Geauga County sheriff’s sergeant in contempt of court.
Grendell, who left the courthouse in his judicial robe, screamed so loudly at the officer that an employee at a restaurant across the street heard it, according to the complaint.
Attorneys for Grendell have argued that their client acted in good faith, and any errors of law or abuses of discretion should be handled by appellate courts, not disciplinary proceedings.
Before his judgeship, Grendell worked as a private practice attorney and as both a state House and Senate representative. Gov. John Kasich originally appointed Grendell to the seat on the Geauga County Juvenile and Probate Court in 2011.
Grendell’s latest six-year term as a jurist began in February 2021. If he is suspended for the proposed year, he could return to the bench.