Judge faces disciplinary complaint
A disciplinary complaint accuses Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Amy Salerno of conducting improper, secretive communications with a defense lawyer before she reduced his client’s bond on drug-trafficking charges.
The complaint was filed Monday by Disciplinary Counsel Scott Drexel before the Board of Professional Conduct, which will hear the case and recommend to the Ohio Supreme Court whether Salerno should be punished with the loss or suspension of her law license, which would remove her from the bench.
Salerno is charged with failing to promote public confidence in the judiciary, failing to avoid impropriety, and receiving and permitting ex-parte communications by not notifying prosecutors.
The judge did not respond to requests for comment left with her court secretary.
The complaint states that Salerno handled the arraignments of two suspects charged with first-degree felony possession of drugs on Nov. 10, 2016. The Franklin County prosecutor’s office requested high bonds in both cases.
Salerno set the bond of Tabatha Scalf at $75,000 after her lawyer informed the judge that his defendant was a lifelong Franklin County resident with no criminal record and owned an electronics business.
The co-defendant, Juan Mendoza, was represented by a public defender, and his bond was set at $350,000 after Salerno was told he did not have a Social Security number, which inhibited a criminal-background check. The prosecutor described Mendoza as a flight risk.
Medonza hired lawyer Eric Brehm later that day. Brehm texted Salerno’s bailiff, Rob
Phillips, seeking to have his client’s bond reduced to the same $75,000 set for Scalf. Phillips forwarded the text messages to Judge Salerno. She then sent a text to her bailiff stating that Brehm was attempting to reach him.
“Based upon Brehm’s ex-parte contacts,” Salerno called the clerk’s office and lowered Mendoza’s bond from $350,000 to $85,000. Mendoza posted bond later than day and was freed from jail without the knowledge of prosecutors. Salerno, the complaint states, told the prosecutor’s office neither that she had communicated with Brehm nor that she had lowered his client’s bond.
Court records show that Mendoza’s case has been continued as he attempts to reach a plea bargain with the prosecutor’s office. He is charged with two counts each of possession of drugs and trafficking in drugs — bulk amounts of heroin and methamphetamine.
Drug charges against Scalf were dismissed; she was sentenced to two years on probation for improper handling of a firearm in a vehicle.
Salerno also was charged with professional misconduct and failing to uphold the law and perform her duties impartially in connection with a traffic case in which the prosecutor’s office objected to her instructions to dismiss a second charge against a defendant.
The Ohio Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Salerno in 2015 for berating jurors for reaching the “wrong” verdict after finding a man not guilty of assault.
Salerno, a Republican who formerly served in the Ohio House, has served as a Municipal Court judge since 2005.