The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Seeking new trial, out on bond
Joseph Allen of Head Start case leaves prison, home for holidays
Joseph Allen will spend Christmas at his brother’s home in Lorain.
The 68-year-old Allen, who has been in and out of prison for most of the years since 1994, was granted a $100,000 personal bond by Lorain County Common Pleas Judge D. Chris Cook in connection with the infamous Head Start case.
He and his lawyer were in court Dec. 22 on a motion for a new trial in the case.
Allen was alleged to have teamed with Nancy Smith to molest children in 1993 who were attending the Head Start program in Lorain.
A judge sentenced Allen to three life terms in prison in connection with his conviction; Smith was sentenced to 30 to 90 years for her conviction.
Smith was released from prison in 2013 while Allen has remained behind bars, although he was released for a 4½ year period from 2009 until 2013, before he was resentenced.
Since the convictions, evidence surfaced that the children had been coached to identify Allen and Smith as their victimizers; that during a police lineup, parents helped children point out Allen as the man who molested them.
Smith drove the Head Start bus.
She allegedly took the children to Allen’s home where he was suspected of molesting them.
The children in the case are now in their 30s.
And the case is getting a thorough re-examination through the legal lens of Cook.
He’ll have to make decisions on a motion for a new trial in the cases against Smith and Allen.
Cook also will decide on a motion to disqualify the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Office and to appoint a special prosecutor in the case filed by Jonathan E. Rosenbaum, who prosecuted the original cases that resulted in 1994 convictions for Smith and Allen.
Rosenbaum worked as an assistant county prosecutor for then Lorain County Prosecutor Greg White.
Rosenbaum didn’t file his motion until just before the court closed Dec. 21.
Cook will have to digest the legal argument made by Rosenbaum as well as a motion filed by current Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson that looked to negate Rosenbaum’s legal maneuvering.
Rosenbaum argued that there should be a thorough legal re-hearing of all the relevant facts in the case and that Tomlinson should be “disqualified” from representing the state of Ohio in this case.
Rosenbaum argues that Tomlinson is working in cahoots with Jim Burge.
Burge, who is Tomlinson’s chief of staff, is a longtime defense attorney, who became a Lorain County Common Pleas Court judge.
While on the bench, Burge was assigned the Head Start case and dismissed it on a technicality arising from a paperwork error made by the sentencing judge.
The Ohio Supreme Court eventually overruled Burge and ordered Smith and Allen back to prison, before Smith worked a deal to be released and Allen went back to prison.
One of the questions Cook brought up in the hearing was why did Smith, a white woman, get released from prison while Allen, a Black man, has been behind bars on and off except for a stint after Burge overturned the conviction.
Cook also wondered allowed why Allen was made to go to trial just three months after being indicted on charges that could result in life-terms in prison.
Cook, a former defense attorney, and the prosecutor said that’s almost unheard for someone to go to trial when facing such a serious penalty.
Tomlinson downplayed Rosenbaum’s argument that the prosecutor is doing the work of Burge.
Tomlinson told Cook he reviewed the Head Start case as did other lawyers and investigators, and they all concluded that no crime had taken place in the case.
Rosenbaum does not agree.
“Instead of advocating on behalf of these child victims of rape and human trafficking, Prosecutor Tomlinson actually becomes a spokesperson for two child rapists/human traffickers, whose convictions have been reviewed and upheld many times by the Ninth District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court (though declining to accept jurisdiction and in rulings on direct appeals),” he said.
The new evidence that surfaced in the case came in the form, in part, of affidavits of two family members of one of the parents of child victims in the original Head Start case.
The two allege that Margie Grondin coached her then-young daughter to make false allegations in connection with the Head Start case to “get paid.”
In 2021, Dino Grondin Jr. — Margie’s son and one of the family members who filed an affidavit — became involved in a custody battle for his daughter with his mother, who now goes by the name of Margaret Perazzola.
A detective investigating the case found that Margie Grondin “orchestrated a similar campaign to manufacture fabricated child abuse charges, presumable for financial gain,” according to the affidavit.
Cook said he plans to review the evidence and make a ruling shortly, although he gave no timetable.
Home for the holidays
For now, Allen is home for the holidays.
His niece, Cassandra Marr, attended the hearing with several family members.
They were relieved their family member would be released, and believe he is innocent.
“We’ve known this for 27 years that he was innocent, “Marr said.
Allen sat next to his lawyer, Richard R. Parsons.
Allen spoke briefly during the hearing, communicating he had no passport, nor money to flee.
Marr admitted it was awkward being in the courtroom with Nancy Smith and her family.
But a common cause brings them together.
“We are all on the same page,” Marr said. “We know this didn’t happen; we’re just hoping this next step they’ll vacate this.”
As for the next few days, she said the family will show some love to Allen.
“We’re just going to shower him with love and give him some good food,” Marr said.