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July 13, 2005

Lead with the Facts: They are Usually Bad Enough

Raw Story , with which I am generally in agreement, has the following misleading headline,

Ohio Republican chief justice disqualifies Democrats from hearing corruption case

The fact is, Ohio Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, a Republican, disqualified all 34 judges on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, Democrats and Republicans alike from hearing a lawsuit alleging corruption by the Republican party. The headline supports an interpretation of the facts, not the facts themselves.

The suit accuses Gov. Bob Taft, other elected Republicans and the Ohio GOP of instituting a "pay-to-profit" system in which millions of dollars were raised by trading unbid state contracts for campaign contributions. [The Plain Dealer]

The suit was filed on Aug. 2, 2004, by Cuyahoga County Commissioner Timothy Hagan, the 2002 Democratic nominee for governor.

The Plain Dealer reports that Justice Moyer provided the explanation for his unusual ruling,

[Commissioner Hagan] "exercises considerable authority over the [court's] budget"

"The public could reasonably question whether any judge now serving on the court of common pleas in Cuyahoga County would be able to render a decision based solely on the relevant facts and the law applicable to those facts."

This may be a legitimate reason for appointing a retired Judge from another jurisdiction to hear the case or it may be a cynical attempt to subvert the justice system. I am not a mind reader, so I have no grounds to judge the Chief Justice's motives. After all, if he really wanted to be sure of the outcome he could have appointed himself to hear the case.

What is known of this case is bad enough; there is no need to question the motives of the Chief Justice. If we are going to give interpretations of the facts we should do it after we present the facts and not before.

Now here is an interpretation of some of the facts,

Kenneth F. Seminatore, Hagan's attorney, called Moyer's ruling "a very broad decision" that fits in with GOP efforts "to deep-six these issues and hope they go away" before the 2006 statewide elections. [The Plain Dealer]

Unless there is a significant delay in the trial, I can't figure out how this ruling will "deep-six" any of the issues. If anything, it will bring more focus on them. But it will mitigate some of the political accusations that have no place in a trial. Let all the facts come out at trial and in the public and then judge the judge.

Please don't go back through my post headlines and list all the times I've led with my opinion. I will try to do better.

Posted by DuaneSmith at July 13, 2005 12:50 PM | Read more on Current Events |

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