Editorial: Joe Deters was a ‘Mistaken Choice’ for Ohio Supreme Court

March 9, 2023

Columbus, OH – The Cleveland.com editorial board pulled no punches, saying Joe Deters was a ‘mistaken choice’ for the Ohio Supreme Court. The editorial board pointed out that Deters has ‘zero judicial experience,’ that Deters enjoys a close, personal relationship with Governor Mike DeWine – and his family – who appointed him and that there are ‘many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service.’ 

“In light of the many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service, the answer is clear: DeWine should not have named Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court,” writes the Cleveland.com editorial board.

“The political gamesmanship surrounding Joe Deters appointment to the Ohio Supreme Court is disgusting. Voters deserve answers from Deters, and better yet, deserve a Justice that is focused on fairness and the rule of law, not political backscratching,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

The Cleveland.com editorial follows a story from Cincinnati.com last week that highlighted his lack of experience and the politics behind the decision. One constitutional law expert in the story even remarked: “Of course, there’s politics going on here.”

In addition, Xavier University recently named Deters as a “justice in residence,” which has sparked a backlash from some campus Democrats, students, faculty and alumni who have sent letters to the administration asking them to reconsider the appointment. “Joe Deters does not represent Jesuit Catholic values or teachings, and has no place at Xavier University,” an online petition started by 20-year-old student Ethan Nichols stated, secretary of the Xavier University Democrats, which he said has coordinated the petition effort.

Read more from Cleveland.com below: 

  • In late December, DeWine named someone to the job with zero judicial experience — longtime Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.

  • Equally troubling are the apparent “you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours” ties between Deters and Pat DeWine.

  • The Cincinnati Enquirer recently highlighted two key ones: In 2017, Justice DeWine asked Deters to give the justice’s son a paid six-week internship. Deters did. And in 2018, Justice DeWine asked Deters to give his senior staff attorney, Mary Stier, a job as an assistant prosecuting attorney handling appellate work. Deters did so in 2019, shortly before Justice DeWine’s wife filed for divorce, alleging adultery. Stier and Justice DeWine are now in an acknowledged relationship, the Enquirer reports.

  • The 2004 scandals that caused Deters to step down from the state treasurer’s office also raise red flags. The scandals, which also featured pay-to-play influence-peddling allegations, also involved Matt Borges, now on trial in Cincinnati on House Bill 6 influence-peddling and corruption charges.

  • So why did Gov. DeWine name Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court? Maybe the question should be: Should DeWine have done so?

  • In light of the many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service, the answer is clear: DeWine should not have named Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court.

 

Gov. DeWine’s mistaken choice of Joe Deters
for the Ohio Supreme Court
3.08.2023 | cleveland.com | Editorial Board

In deciding who would fill the Ohio Supreme Court vacancy created by January’s elevation of Justice Sharon M. Kennedy to chief justice, Gov. Mike DeWine had a veritable ocean liner of experienced judges to choose among. They included 68 state appellate court judges, the next step down from the state high court, and hundreds of Common Pleas Court judges serving in each of the state’s 88 counties.

Yet in late December, DeWine named someone to the job with zero judicial experience — longtime Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. Deters took office in January, and can serve through next year, and seek election to a full term in November 2024.

In naming Deters — a longtime friend of the governor’s son, Justice Pat DeWine — Gov. DeWine called Deters a “well-respected public servant who is known for his legal intellect, reverence for the rule of law, and his accessibility.”

Some might differ with that assessment, given Deters’ political past, which included stepping down as Ohio’s treasurer of state in 2004 after two key associates pleaded guilty in pay-to-play scandals at the treasurer’s office and in Hamilton County, where Deters chaired the county GOP from 1999-2001.

Equally troubling are the apparent “you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours” ties between Deters and Pat DeWine. The Cincinnati Enquirer recently highlighted two key ones: In 2017, Justice DeWine asked Deters to give the justice’s son a paid six-week internship. Deters did. And in 2018, Justice DeWine asked Deters to give his senior staff attorney, Mary Stier, a job as an assistant prosecuting attorney handling appellate work. Deters did so in 2019, shortly before Justice DeWine’s wife filed for divorce, alleging adultery. Stier and Justice DeWine are now in an acknowledged relationship, the Enquirer reports.

Gov. DeWine has said Pat DeWine played no role in his choice of the next Ohio Supreme Court justice.

Yet if the above doesn’t seem incestuous enough between the two families, Gov. DeWine also appointed Deters’ brother Dennis Deters to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in 2019. That was shortly after Dennis Deters lost election to the 1st Ohio Court of Appeals, the judgeship to which then-Gov. John Kasich had appointed him in 2017, replacing Pat DeWine after the younger DeWine’s election to the Ohio Supreme Court.

The 2004 scandals that caused Deters to step down from the state treasurer’s office also raise red flags. The scandals, which also featured pay-to-play influence-peddling allegations, also involved Matt Borges, now on trial in Cincinnati on House Bill 6 influence-peddling and corruption charges.

Borges, Deters’ former chief of staff and campaign fundraiser, eventually pleaded guilty in 2004 to misdemeanor unauthorized use of a public office. Also pleading guilty, to a misdemeanor election violation, was Eric Sagun, a lobbyist go-between who’d raised money for the Hamilton County GOP which Deters formerly headed.

In the 2004 case, Borges had been “charged with giving 10 brokers who had contributed to Mr. Deters’ campaign fund an advantage in getting contracts with the treasurer’s office,” the Toledo Blade reported at the time.

One was disgraced Gates Mills stockbroker Frank Gruttadauria, who spent time in federal prison for defrauding clients.

The Plain Dealer reported April 1, 2004, that Gruttadauria “admitted [in a plea bargain] that a $50,000 donation intended for Deters’ campaign was disguised as a donation to the Hamilton County Republican Party.”

That story also noted that Gruttadauria’s former employers, SG Cowen and Lehman Brothers, “did a combined $5.9 billion in trades with the state treasury,” adding that Deters, who was not charged in the case, “has conceded that he and his fund-raiser directed brokers and others doing business with the state treasury to the Hamilton County GOP accounts.”

With those 2004 cases being prosecuted out of Cuyahoga County, some suggested at the time that then-County Prosecutor Bill Mason was trying to discredit Deters, to hurt his statewide electoral chances.

A. Steven Dever, then Mason’s chief trial counsel, denied that. “We didn’t go looking for that,” Dever told The Plain Dealer, referring to connections his office uncovered between Borges and Gruttadauria. “People in Columbus thought that it was a political smear job. They didn’t look at it as an attempt to influence government through campaign contributions.”

So why did Gov. DeWine name Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court? Maybe the question should be: Should DeWine have done so?

In light of the many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service, the answer is clear: DeWine should not have named Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court.

About our editorials:
Editorials express the view of the editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer —
the senior leadership and editorial-writing staff. As is traditional,
editorials are unsigned and intended to be seen as the voice of the news organization.