Ex-judge given probation for theft, tampering
A longtime attorney and former Delaware County judge has been sentenced to five years probation for felony theft and tampering with records.
Retired assigned Judge James A. Brogan of Montgomery County sentenced Michael C. Hoague on Thursday in Delaware County Common Pleas Court, and ordered him to repay $ 5,000 in public funds that he had illegally received. Hoague could have been sentenced to as many as four years in prison.
Separately, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended Hoague’s law license earlier this month following his felony convictions. The interim suspension will remain in place while the court’s disciplinary counsel investigates Hoague’s conduct and decides the ultimate fate of his law license.
A jury convicted Hoague, 62, of the charges Nov. 17. They stemmed from incidents in 2012 and 2013 in which Hoague assisted in a rape case and later was appointed public defender as co- counsel.
The case focused on $ 5,000 that Hoague received as a public defender and payments he had negotiated with the family of an indigent man, Timothy Hamon, who faced sexual- abuse charges. Special Prosecutor Brad Tammaro, assigned to the case from the Ohio attorney general’s office, told the jury that Hoague was deceptive in failing to disclose more than $ 8,000 that Hamon’s family had paid him before Hoague was appointed a public defender in the case.
Hoague received $ 5,000 in public defender funds, which amounted to illegal double dipping and a theft of public funds. Equally egregious, Tammaro said, was falsifying a required disclosure form that stated he had not been paid.
Cleveland attorney Ian Friedman, who represented Hoague, argued that the $ 8,500 Hoague received from the Hamons was for consulting work, not as an appointed attorney, and that Hoague did the jobs separately and legally.
Hamon’s family was unhappy with Thomas Waldeck, Hamon’s public defender, and sought out Hoague. He agreed to consult on the case until May 2012, when then- Common Pleas Judge Duncan Whitney appointed Hoague co- counsel with Waldeck. Hamon was sentenced last year to four years in prison.
Hoague was a Municipal Court judge from January 1996 through January 2001.
The special prosecutor and the retired judge were assigned the case to avoid conflicts of interest in Delaware County, where Hoague does most of his work.