Judge, Lorain FOP spar over recusal

A Lorain County Common Pleas judge has decided to recuse himself from some cases involving the Lorain Police Department.

Judge Mark A. Betleski will not preside over cases involving Lorain police in which he would be called to act as the trier of fact, meaning bench trials or motions to suppress.

This does not include trials that would be heard by a jury, according to a transcript of a Nov. 6 hearing.

In that transcript, Betleski says the rift between him and the Police Department has its roots in a 2015 case he decided.

In regards to that case, Betleski said, Lorain police Detective Jake Morris made misrepresentations of the facts of the case and of the law to a local television station.

In response, Betleski said he chose to recuse himself from cases involving Morris for two reasons. The first being if an officer takes issue with the court they should inform the court of such through the proper channels, which he said Morris did not.

Betleski said the other reason was Morris’ credibility.

“I came to the conclusion that if a police officer is going to the press, and in this case, TV, and criticize the court, that he would be accurate in his presentation to the media,” Betleski says in the transcript. “And so, I determined that even if I didn’t come to the conclusion that Mr. Morris purposely lied to (the station) about the court, that he was so lacking in competence that he wouldn’t get the facts straight for purposes of public discussion in regard to this, that I could not be fair in my analysis of his credibility as a witness.”

According to the transcript, Betleski said he was unaware of any repercussions Morris received for the misrepresentations and it appeared the Police Department took no action in the situation.

More recently, a news release from the Police Department targeted Betleski due to rulings in another case.

“That press release also is inaccurate under its statement of the law, and so that creates an additional dilemma for the court, because now I have to question as to whether the whole Police Department doesn’t have an appreciation, either for the truth or for the law,” Betleski said in the transcript. “And so this court can’t possibly, when dealing as a trier of fact with the Lorain Police Department, at this stage, be capable of being unbiased in its determination of the credibility of Lorain Police Department officials.”

In response to Betleski’s statements, Fraternal Order of Police Lorain Lodge No. 3 president Kyle Gelenius released a statement Nov. 8 further criticizing Betleski.

“Let us be clear, our members have been critical of Judge Betleski for what we see as sentences that make our community less safe,” Gelenius said in the release. “Judge Betleski was voted into office to dispense justice for the citizens of Lorain County and, in our opinion, he has betrayed that trust.

“For Judge Betleski to disparage an entire Police Department and make unsubstantiated claims of dishonesty is reckless, unprofessional and unbecoming of a judge. We have no confidence in Judge Betleski.”

Betleski declined to respond to the union statement. Lorain police Chief Cel Rivera and Morris were unavailable for comment.