Campaign slogan faces board scrutiny
Brad Dicken | The Chronicle-Telegram
Allegations that former county Domestic Relations Judge Paulette Lilly is trying to deceive voters have reached the Ohio Supreme Court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline.Kreig Brusnahan, the president of the Lorain County Bar Association, filed a complaint against Lilly earlier this month, saying her campaign materials and literature seemed designed to imply that she was still a sitting judge.
Ruth Bope Dangle, the board’s staff attorney, said a committee reviewing the complaint found enough evidence to make the complaint public and set a hearing for next Wednesday, the day after the election.
Complaints that a judicial candidate has violated the Supreme Court’s very specific rules of conduct for would-be judges are only made public if probable cause is found. Only about 15 complaints in the past 13 years have reached that threshold, Dangle said.
If Lilly is found to have violated the rules, she could be reprimanded, fined or even have her law license suspended, Dangle said, although if she wins the primary she would still be able to compete in the November general election.
Lilly was defeated in her 2006 re-election bid. At the time she was a Republican, but she now is running in the Democratic primary against Assistant Lorain Law Director James Walther and Assistant Elyria Law Director Honey Howard Rothschild.
Brusnahan said he didn’t file the complaint in his capacity with the bar association, but as a former judicial candidate and attorney.
“I believe in playing by the rules, and I think everyone needs to follow the rules,” Brusnahan said. “Quite frankly, I believe that Paulette Lilly has not followed the rules.”
Brusnahan cites campaign advertisements and mailers that feature a photo of Lilly wearing a judicial robe and the use of the word “Re-Elect Democrat Paulette Lilly for Judge Domestic Relations Court” as an example of Lilly’s attempts at deceit.
The board, in a formal complaint it prepared after reviewing Brusnahan’s allegations, said it thought Lilly was using the term “re-elect’’ in error because she isn’t running for her old job. Instead, she is running for a seat that will merge outgoing Probate Judge Frank Horvath’s responsibilities in with the Domestic Relations court.
Lilly said Wednesday that she had done nothing wrong, and that she had had checked with the Supreme Court’s representatives before using the phrasing in her literature and ads. She called Brusnahan’s complaint a politically motivated attempt to derail her efforts to return to the bench.
“I believe again that this is another attempt at politicking,” she said.
Brusnahan said he’s not backing any one candidate and wasn’t out to get Lilly.
“I have no ax to grind against Paulette Lilly. If this was Honey Rothschild or James Walther who was doing this, I would have filed the same grievance,” he said.
Rothschild declined to comment, but Walther, who has complained about Lilly’s use of the words re-elect and Democrat in the past, said he believes Lilly was trying to make voters think she’s still a judge.
“It absolutely is misleading,” he said.
In the meantime, Lilly remains under investigation by a special prosecutor looking at whether she mishandled county resources while she was in office.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Brad Dicken | The Chronicle-Telegram February 27th, 2008 in Top Stories. Popularity: 5% |
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