Grendell Accused of Misconduct, Faces State Disciplinary Counsel Complaint

by Amy Patterson 

Ethics Office Files 61-page complaint against Juvenile/Probate Judge

Geauga County Probate/Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Grendell has until Nov. 30 to respond to a complaint filed Nov. 10 with the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct claiming multiple violations of the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct and Rules of Professional Conduct.

In the complaint, the Ohio Supreme Court Office of Disciplinary Counsel outlined a pattern of alleged misconduct including Grendell’s handling of a child custody case involving two juveniles, a public dispute with employees of the Geauga County Auditor’s Office and public comments disparaging other elected officials and news media.

Grendell also is accused of abusing the prestige of judicial office in testimony before a government body and conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.

The ODC is charged with educating, investigating, and prosecuting attorneys and judicial officers who are accused of ethical misconduct. The office reviews grievances from the public, judges and other attorneys to determine whether there is evidence of unethical conduct and, if evidence exists, files formal disciplinary charges against the attorney or judicial officer.

In response to the complaint, Grendell issued a press release Nov. 10 stating the complaint “is without legal merit, reflects a lack of understanding of Ohio juvenile law and procedures, and contains many factually incorrect allegations that are two years old and older.”

“Judge Timothy Grendell followed the law, protected children, spoke truthfully and exercised his constitutionally protected free speech rights, especially as they pertain to protecting public confidence in the court. Judge Grendell violated no ethic rules and looks forward to the opportunity to prove that ALL of his actions were proper and ethical,” the release stated.

Family Matters

About half of the complaint relates to the custody case of two teenage brothers Grendell ordered sent to the Portage-Geauga County Juvenile Detention Center in Ravenna during the COVID pandemic after they refused visitation with their estranged father, who had been accused of violence against them.

Grendell took over the case from the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas Domestic Relations Division in 2019, after a court magistrate ordered the father to undergo a drug and alcohol assessment, and complete anger management classes and a parenting program.

By that time, the children had made clear multiple times to a court-appointed guardian ad litem that they did not wish to see their father, who the ODC filing said allegedly slammed one of the brothers against a wall in a February 2017 incident involving the Orwell Police Department.

The complaint details the lengths to which Grendell went to force the children into visitation with their father. The judge told their mother if she was not willing to encourage the children to have a relationship with their father, he would be awarded sole custody.

“What fosters a loving and bonded relationship is the children seeing dad, and mom encouraging them to have a good time when they see dad, and dad being smart and taking them out to play ball or to go on a picnic, or fish, or whatever dad likes to do with the boys that they can bond,” Grendell said during a May 2020 hearing. “… If the children come over with an attitude and that’s not a good thing, and children don’t develop attitudes on their own. Somebody has to help them develop the attitude, and I will be watching, ma’am. I will be watching.”

The children were still unwilling to visit their father after being escorted by Grendell’s constable John Ralph to an ordered visit, at which point Grendell issued an order to remand them to a juvenile detention center in Portage County.

Their mother offered to be detained in place of her children, expressing concerns related to the COVID pandemic during a time when many detention centers were releasing nonviolent offenders to slow the spread of the virus, according to the ODC filing. Ralph told the mother her children would be kept safe and isolated in the center.

While the rules for juvenile courts in the state of Ohio say a child placed in detention has the right to speak to his or her parents and/or legal counsel immediately upon being placed, and “at reasonable times thereafter,” Grendell imposed strict rules on the pair.

They were prohibited from calling their mother, but allowed to call their father. The siblings were kept in isolation and in separate rooms, and prohibited from contacting each other. Further, they were subject to physical checks every 15 minutes around the clock.

In September 2020, Grendell was informed ABC News 5 Cleveland would be running a story on the brothers. He refused multiple opportunities to comment on the story, the ODC filing said, and although he had handled it for over a year, Grendell returned the case to the common pleas court before the television story aired.

The second matter cited by the ODC involves a separate juvenile custody case during which Grendell issued an order prohibiting COVID testing of two children without his consent. The judge alleged COVID concerns were used to deny visitation rights to the other parent.

“Pardon me for being a little skeptical when I’ve got 15 or more women coming in here, some guys, saying that they shouldn’t go see their other parent because of COVID-19,” Grendell said during a hearing related to the case.

During that hearing the judge referred to COVID-19 as the “COVID-19 panic-demic,” and according to the ODC made several more inaccurate statements about the spread and severity of the virus.

In September 2020, one of the children was admitted to a Akron Children’s Hospital in need of emergency breathing treatments. Contrary to Grendell’s order, the hospital tested the child for COVID. In response, Grendell ordered Ralph to “physically seize” both children.

“Consequently,” the ODC complaint states, “Ralph went to ACH and physically removed (the child) from the hospital.”

The mother contacted the Geauga County Maple Leaf Nov. 10 and said she has neither seen nor spoken to her children in over two years.

The ODC alleges Grendell’s order prohibiting COVID testing without his approval violated multiple judicial rules of conduct, including that a judge:

• shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety;
• shall uphold and apply the law, and shall perform all duties of judicial office fairly and impartially; and
• shall not permit family, social, political, financial, or other interests or relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment.

In his press release, Grendell said the ODC complaint contains “speculation and false allegations” from two individuals who violated numerous court orders.

“Those individuals made false abuse allegations against their children’s fathers and actively worked to alienate the children from their fathers,” Grendell claimed.

Grendell also argued the complaint improperly cited a sheriff’s deputy as a legal authority — and the deputy was wrong as to Ohio juvenile law.

Abuse of Prestige

The fourth and final count alleged by the ODC is that Grendell used his judicial authority to “abuse the prestige of judicial office to advance the personal or economic interests of the judge or others, or allow others to do so.”

In May 2020, Grendell’s wife, state Rep. Diane Grendell, introduced House Bill 624, also known as the “Truth in COVID Statistics Bill.” Diane alleged the state government, namely Gov. Mike DeWine and then Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, were misreporting COVID-19 statistics.

In testimony before the Ohio House State and Local Government Committee – on which Grendell sat during his time in the state house – the judge questioned the integrity of statistics reported by ODH, and accused the department as well as the media of creating an “atmosphere of fear.”

At the time, Diane was actively campaigning for re-election.

The ODC complaint says Grendell violated a rule of judicial conduct stating a judge shall not appear voluntarily at a public hearing before, or otherwise consult with, an executive or a legislative body or official.

In Grendell’s Nov. 10 press release, Grendell said as a member of the Law and Policy Committees of the Ohio Judicial Conference he is frequently asked to review, comment and testify in front of the Ohio Legislature on pending legislative matters.

“It is inconceivable that the Disciplinary Counsel would have any authority to pick and choose, in hindsight, the appropriateness of any such testimony,” Grendell said. “It is even more inconceivable that the Disciplinary Counsel would have any authority over the free speech of anyone testifying as an individual Ohio citizen, as Judge Grendell did in his personal testimony regarding HB 624, which is protected by both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 11 of the Ohio Constitution.”

Old Grievances

The ODC complaint rehashes a long-running battle between Grendell’s court and the office of Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder, including a June 2019 incident involving Grendell and his Court Administrator Kim Laurie and Fiscal Compliance Officer Seth Miller.

Miller and Laurie were asked to leave the auditor’s office after allegedly becoming disruptive. The pair left with a stack of purchase orders, vouchers and warrants Walder said were under his statutory control.

The ODC complaint describes an encounter the day of the incident between Grendell and Chardon Police Chief Scott Niehus.

“Immediately following the incident at the Auditor’s Office, (Grendell) appeared unannounced at the CPD and spoke to CPD Police Chief Scott Niehus,” the complaint states. “During the conversation, respondent threatened Niehus and the CPD with a federal lawsuit if any of Niehus’ employees interfered with respondent’s employees.”

A court-appointed special prosecutor charged Miller and Laurie in Chardon Municipal Court with criminal mischief, a third-degree misdemeanor. They were eventually acquitted after a jury trial.

While the case was under investigation, the ODC complaint states Grendell continued to make public statements in which he attacked Walder, Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz and the media, specifically the Maple Leaf.

In July 2019, Grendell addressed a meeting of the Geauga County Tea Party in a presentation titled “Just the Facts.”

“(Grendell) suggested that Auditor Walder had committed a crime, but would not face prosecution due to his relationship with Prosecutor Flaiz,” the ODC said.

In extensive quotes from the presentation, Grendell said Walder was being “protected by his buddy the county prosecutor.”

“It’s a page out of the Obama/Mueller handbook,” said Grendell. “The articles I was reading in the last Maple Leaf about, about special prosecutors brought back all the images of Mueller running around and, and misuse of authority. There’s nothing for a special prosecutor to do except waste taxpayers’ money.”

Grendell further accused Walder of conduct constituting felony intimidation. Additionally, the ODC said Grendell maligned the press, stating, “I will be vilified by those wonderful papers like the ‘Maple Leaf Rag.’”

In an additional comment to the Maple Leaf hours after his Nov. 10 press release, Grendell said the ODC allegations are over two years old and received media attention at the time.

“I was re-elected since then because the majority residents of Geauga County know better and trust me,” he said. “This temporary affliction will not change or impact my work providing efficient and fair justice to the public in Geauga County. I look forward to demonstrating that the allegations are baseless and without merit as the process proceeds.”

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Grendell Accused of Misconduct, Faces State Disciplinary Counsel Complaint