State appeals Burge decision

ELYRIA — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office has appealed a trial judge’s decision to reduce some of the charges of which former Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge was convicted from felonies to misdemeanors.

James Burge

If the appeal is successful, it could prevent Burge from returning to the bench if he manages to unseat county Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery in their Democratic primary March 15. Felony convictions automatically lead to the suspension of an attorney’s law license, and judges can’t serve if they don’t have a valid license.

In court documents filed Monday, Assistant Attorney General Matt Donahue wrote that Visiting Judge Dale Crawford shouldn’t have reduced three felony tampering with records charges to misdemeanors.

“The Defendant’s sentence is contrary to law because the trial court erred in reducing the convictions to misdemeanors,” Donahue wrote.

Jurors in the case originally found Burge guilty of three felony tampering with records charges and three misdemeanor counts of falsification because of discrepancies on his annual financial disclosure forms.

But Crawford ruled that because he had improperly prepared the verdict forms used in the felony charges, those charges had to be reduced to misdemeanors. Ohio law requires that the level of the offense be listed on the verdict forms or the jury is presumed to have convicted the defendant of the least-serious form of the offense, which in the case of tampering with records is a misdemeanor.

It’s the same error that saw former county Commissioner Michael Ross’ original 9½-year prison sentence on corruption charges reduced to six years behind bars. Ross was released from prison last year.

Donahue argued against reducing the felonies to misdemeanors in court documents filed last year, contending that the jury convicted Burge of the felony version of the charges he was indicted on, not the misdemeanors.

Burge, who resigned from the bench shortly after the jury returned its guilty verdicts, has maintained he did nothing illegal and has said his appeal will see his convictions overturned. He said Donahue’s appeal didn’t surprise him.

“It’s a move that I anticipated, and it’s not one that would give me pause,” he said.

Burge originally appealed his sentence last year, but that appeal was thrown out because of technical errors in how Crawford prepared the sentencing entry ordering Burge to pay a $3,000 fine.

Burge’s attorney, Michael Stepanik, filed a second appeal that was clocked in at county Clerk of Courts Tom Orlando’s office Feb. 12, a day after the deadline. Stepanik has said he had the paperwork prepared on Feb. 10 and isn’t sure why it took two days to reach Orlando’s office. He has said he will ask the 9th District Court of Appeals to allow the appeal to proceed despite the lateness of the filing.

Burge said it’s possible that even if his appeal is thrown out, Donahue’s might be allowed to go forward.

Jill Del Greco, a spokeswoman for DeWine’s office, said she couldn’t speculate on how the case would play out if Burge’s appeal isn’t allowed to proceed because of the late filing.

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