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Ohio Supreme Court justices, advocates for crime victims want pleas based on facts • Ohio Capital Journal

Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly has documented more than 600 trials in which a defendant pleaded guilty to a lesser crime that was inconsistent with the original charge.

Donnelly calls these “factually baseless causes of action” and has documented them notably in the Cuyahoga and Hamilton County courts from 2005 to 2022.

“I am opposed to allowing factually unfounded causes of action when there are no facts to support them,” he said. “So basically their point is to plead and allow people to plead crimes they didn't commit in order to solve the case. … I think that’s probably happening across the state.”

These types of pleas are most common in sex crimes and domestic violence cases, said Elizabeth Well, legal director of the Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center.

An example of this is the rape charge pleaded up to and including serious bodily harm. Or rape where the victim is a minor pleaded to child endangerment charges.

“What actually happened to the victim becomes, at best, a footnote in the conversation and, at worst, completely ignored,” Meg Garvin said. Managing Director of the National Crime Victims' Rights Institute.

This happens all over the country, not just in Ohio, and it can lead to people not having trust in the justice system, she said.

“They won’t report a crime,” Garvin said. “Then we have a completely dysfunctional system that judges things in a way that didn’t actually happen.”

Donnelly agrees.

“If you're rich and powerful, you can get around these laws,” he said. “And how effective are these laws when potentially dangerous people circumvent them just because they have the power to do so?”

Sexual crimes that exist pleaded Donnelly and Well said Down could be a way to avoid registering as a sex offender.

“Because they escape such consequences, they have the opportunity to reoffend,” Well said.

These dismissed allegations can resurface if the defendant commits a new crime or an employer conducts a background check.

“If you see a serious assault from 10 years ago, it's not going to cause a stir, but if you knew it was a rape, it might worry you a little more,” Donnelly said. “The bad thing about it is that it puts bad information into the system.”

In 2017, 82% of Ohioans voted to pass it Marsy's Law, that is The aim is to protect victims of crime.

Louis Tobin, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, takes issue with what Donnelly is talking about when it comes to plea deals that aren't based on facts, calling it “a classic example of legal theory versus practical realities.” .

“Just because one type of sexual assault best fits a particular set of facts doesn't mean that other charges don't fit as well, so that doesn't mean an assault charge doesn't fit just as well,” Tobin said. “Sexual assault can and often does result in physical harm or serious physical harm, so the defense of sexual assault to assault is based on the facts.”

It may not be a perfect plea, but prosecutors must grapple with the reality of the case. he said.

“Many of these cases involve underage victims who you don't want to put on the witness stand and force them to relive this really traumatic event and force them to face the defendant who may be is a family member or family friend.” Tobin said.

There are good reasons why a prosecutor would agree to one plea to a lesser crime, even if they believed a rape had occurred, Donnelly said.

Incumbent Democratic Justice Michael P. Donnelly was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court in 2018. (Photo provided by Donnelly).

“It might be too traumatic for (the victim) to testify,” he said. “They have a good faith belief in the defendant’s guilt but are concerned about whether they can prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. These are all legitimate concerns that are used to negotiate something that is a lesser crime, but that is not the case here. These are not minor crimes. These are completely different crimes that have nothing to do with rape.”

Sometimes Well’s clients just want to be done with the legal process.

“The person who commits a crime is enough for them,” she said.

Plea deals take place between the Prosecutor and defense attorney, and the judge ultimately has the power to accept or reject it. When he was a Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas judge from 2005 to 2018, Donnelly refused to accept pleas that were not based on facts.

“There have to be facts that, if true, support what the defendant is admitting to solve the case, so I wouldn't accept those in my room, even if they come up all the time,” Donnelly said.

Before Donnelly was elected to the Ohio Supreme Court, he petitioned the Ohio Judicial Conference Require that felony charges in plea bargaining be based on the facts of the crime. The Ohio Judicial Conference recommended it to the Ohio Supreme Court, but the state Supreme Court rejected the proposal 4-2 in 2016.

This was one of the reasons Donnelly decided to run for the Ohio Supreme Court in 2018, and he would like to see the Ohio Supreme Court enforce stricter plea rules.

“If a plea was presented to a judge and the offense was inconsistent with, or a lesser form of, the offense charged at trial, the judge would not necessarily just say 'no' but would have to ask the prosecutor to record what facts “If they are true, they support what that person wants to admit to clear the case,” he said.

Donnelly sent a letter to the Ohio Judicial Conference in November 2021 asking that it “resume its previous efforts on this matter” but said that had resulted in nothing.

Donnelly lost his bid for re-election against Republicans Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Megan Shanahan's term as an Ohio Supreme Court justice will end on December 31st.

“Having lost the election, I see no way to do anything other than raise awareness,” he said. “Hopefully I will lecture at law schools across the state of Ohio to inform them of the reality of this happening. … I will continue to advocate against them.”

The Ohio Crime Victim Justice Center wants a mandatory conversation between the victim and the prosecutor during the plea process so the victim can understand the change in plea, Well said.

“This will give the victim an opportunity to give the court an informed statement about their feelings about the plea deal,” she said. “I think a lot of people would understand what it means that this is a sex crime pleaded It could be a case of serious bodily harm or a case of child sexual abuse pleaded They would have real concerns, up to and including child endangerment or domestic violence, and they should be able to voice these.”

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