FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Special prosecutors rest weak case against Judge Tracie
Hunter
Cincinnati, OH- September 26, 2014After two and a half weeks of
testimony by only a few witnesses, the prosecution has rested its
case in the trial of Judge Tracie M. Hunter. The trial has had the
grandeur of a murder trial and a plot akin to a poorly constructed
Perry Mason episode or a 2014 remake of Much Ado About Nothing.
Despite all the pomp and circumstance, each of the nine felony
charges against the first term judge have unraveled and the
prosecutors case has gone down the drain, along with Hamilton
County taxpayers money. When asked during pretrial hearings what
the trial is actually costing, the prosecutors office admitted that
they had not yet negotiated a fee. So, essentially it seems that
prosecutor Joe Deters, handed special prosecutors Merlyn
Shiverdecker and Scott Crosswell, III a blank check to bring these
frivolous charges against Hunter.
Defense attorney Clyde Bennett, II, who has used the prosecutors
own witnesses to skillfully dismantle the prosecutors case, says
the charges amount to a personal vendetta and prosecutorial
vindictiveness towards a judge who refused to give up her seat.
Hunter is accused of theft for using her county-issued credit
card to pay court fees, stemming from charges filed against her
judicial office; having an unlawful interest in a public contract
by using her judicial office to secure overtime for her brother;
and for backdating court entries to prevent the prosecutors office
from filing appeals.
Testimony of witnesses proved that Hunter was never personally
informed of the specific business expenses the card could be used
for, however she never used her credit card for anything other than
business. Witness testimony revealed that Judge Karla Grady had,
but was given the opportunity to correct her mistake. Hunter was
instead charged with three felonies associated with the business
oriented filing fees.
Dwayne Bowman, superintendant of the Youth Center (2020)
testified that Hunter used her position to secure overtime for her
brother and subsequently intervened in her brothers investigation
after he was fired. On cross-examination, however Bowman admitted
that he coordinated the overtime through Hunters bailiff and had in
fact never communicated directly with Hunter regarding her brothers
overtime.
Hunters brother who amassed only 4.9 hours in overtime on Judge
Tracie Hunters floor, worked for the juvenile court for several
years before his sister won her judicial seat. Stephen could not
confirm whether his sister even knew he was working on her floor.
Over the course of the year, Stephen Hunter only worked 93 hours of
overtime at the Youth Center, while several others holding his
position worked upwards of 2500 hours in overtime.
No evidence was presented that proves that Hunter interfered
with the investigation, however the prosecution is accusing Hunter
of securing documents from the court and giving them to her
brothers attorney prior to the investigation into his firing. These
documents were public records claims defense attorney Bennett. The
defense plans to call witnesses who will testify that they
requested and secured public records from Hunter.
Testimony by Proware software executive and case manager Lisa
Miller, revealed that Miller, Connie Murdock, Karla Gunther and
others routinely backdated court entries. On Friday, it was also
revealed that Judge Hunters cases had been changed and deleted in
the courts computer system, overturning her original ruling, which
was not in favor of the magistrates decision in the A.C. case. The
A.C. case is one of two that she is currently being brought up on
charges for. Hunter does not have the ability to delete an entry
from the system.
Modifying the judges decision could constitute a criminal
offense on the part of Connie Murdock; the case management
supervisor who Miller says ordered the change. During pre-trial
hearings special prosecutor Crosswell told defense attorney Bennett
that if he could show him one incident where anyone else backdated
documents I will prosecute them as well.
On cross-examination, Proware software executive testified that
the reason he did not provide the names of who actually did the
backdating is because the prosecutor didnt ask him to. No testimony
or evidence was presented demonstrating that Hunter backdated the
documents in question.
News media outlets, which previously sensationalized the
allegations against Hunter, have now chosen to no longer write
daily articles on the case. Kimball Perry, a Cincinnati Enquirer
reporter who has been described by supporters as obsessed,
unprofessional, aggressive, one-sided, and tabloidal in his
reporting of the pretrial hearings, became eerily silent and almost
non-existent as defense attorney Clyde Bennett, II masterfully
dismantled the prosecutors case using the prosecutions
witnesses.
Assistant Prosecutor James T. Harper admitted that the
prosecutors were fighting Hunter and representing her at the same
time, when he was lead attorney for the Board of Elections in an
attempt to suppress votes from predominantly black communities to
try to keep Hunter off the bench. Hunter eventually won her case
and the election. During cross examination, Harper admitted that
he, Joe Deters and several others in the prosecutors office were
upset when Hunter filed grievances against them with the Ohio
Supreme Court. It is the worst thing that can happen to an
attorney, he stated. When Bennett asked if this wasnt a conflict of
interest, Harper said we were fighting her as Tracie Hunter and
representing her judicial office.
Katherine Pridemore, the prosecutions star witness and also an
employee of the prosecutors office, further demonstrated the
strength of Bennetts claim that the prosecutors office had it in
for Hunter and wanted her off the bench by any means necessary.
Pridemore became unraveled as she railed against Hunter pointing
her fingers and gnashing her teeth, I lived and breathed your
client, Pridemore said. While under oath, Pridemore said the
directives to investigate Hunter came from the prosecutor and the
Ohio Supreme Court. John VanNorman of the Ohio Supreme Court denies
that they ever conducted an investigation on Judge Hunter.
Pridemores testimony was further impeached by Chief Public
Defender Raymond T. Faller, when he admitted that there were no
timeline for cases on appeal and when he admitted that the cases
that they accused Hunter of being out of time on did not harm
children and originally filed in 1998 and 2005, long before Hunter
took the bench. On cross-examination, Prosecutor William Breyer
also disputed Pridemores testimony that Hunter used nunc pro tunc
entries to backdate. A non pro tunc entry is not used to backdate,
it is used only to correct an earlier entry. It cannot be used to
change a date.
Bishop Bobby Hilton is calling for a massive protest rally and
press conference on Hamilton County courthouse steps at noon on
Monday, September 29th. Prosecutor Joe Deters office who brought
these trumped up charges against Judge Hunter, is the same
prosecution team responsible for allow the officer to go free of
charges in the homicide of John Crawford, who was holding a toy gun
he intended to purchase at the Walmart store in Beavercreak,
Ohio.
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Vanessa Enoch, Ph.D. studentUnion Institute &
UniversityReporting from CincinnatiYou Got the PowerP.O. Box
146Tuskegee, Alabama 36087(334) 328-6627
