Portage County Judge Puts Criminal on Court Staff;
Handling of Sensitive Files an Issue

August 24, 2007
The Plain Dealer
By James Ewinger


A Portage County judge already under fire for jailing a public defender is now drawing criticism from county officials for placing a convicted criminal on his court staff.

County Municipal Judge John Plough has been using Angela Porter, 21, as an assistant since her conviction last month on misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct charges.

Plough placed her on probation, ordered her to perform more than 60 hours community service and put her to work as an unpaid staff member.

Clerk of Courts Linda Fankhauser said Thursday that Porter is not authorized to use county computers but is using someone else's sign-in to set Plough's court schedule.

"I'm very disturbed because we work hard to keep sensitive information from the public," Fankhauser said.

"Now we have somebody on community work-service looking at everything."

The clerk said Porter has the kind of access that would allow her to change or erase court records, dismiss pending cases or alter court-imposed fines.

County Auditor Janet Esposito said Wednesday afternoon that she is also worried about the computer software that underpins the record system. The clerk is in charge of court records, but the auditor employs the manager of all computer systems that serve county government.

Court employees have greater access than the general public and also have access to court files that are not completely available to the public.

Fankhauser said that to the best of her knowledge there are no other people with open criminal cases working for the clerk or directly for the courts. She said her staff is schooled on what they are allowed to do with county computers.

Porter would also have access to Social Security numbers in the files as well as sensitive documents from the statewide computer system used exclusively by law enforcement, Esposito said. Confidential printouts from that system sometimes find their way into the court files, but are removed when the general public requests them.

Esposito said she also has heard that Plough intends to hire the young woman once her free service to the county is at an end, but no paperwork has been filed.

Records show that Porter was charged with assault, felonious assault on a corrections officer and disorderly conduct in February. She pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor assault and disorderly charges.

Her only other legal problems appear to be a couple of earlier traffic tickets.

Plough refused a reporter's request to get a transcript of Porter's sentencing. Readily available court records do not indicate what position prosecutors took on Porter's sentence.

She was in the courtroom Wednesday, but refused to answer questions and left when approached by a reporter.

Porter is not Plough's first unusual hire. After he was elected in 2005, he hired Fred Kanter as his bailiff. The Ohio Supreme Court in 1999 suspended Kanter's law license for two years for paying kickbacks to corporate house counsel for case referrals. Kanter never reapplied for the license and now works for a racetrack. Plough fired him in March for unrelated reasons.

Plough also is in the spotlight because he jailed a public defender last week, when the lawyer refused to go forward with trial. The lawyer had just drawn the case the day before and was not prepared.

Common Pleas Judge John Enlow has stayed Plough's handling of the underlying criminal case for which the public defender was arrested, but the lawyer's contempt hearing is set to go forward today in front of Plough.

The county public defender's office has drawn support from national and statewide criminal defense attorneys, and the judge was condemned last week by a national criminal-defense group based in Washington, D.C.

The judge also remains under investigation by the Ohio Supreme Court because Common Pleas Judge Laurie Pittman sent a list of complaints to the high court, accusing Plough of "making a mockery of Justice."

She has accused Plough of intimidating defendants who act as their own lawyers, abusing their constitutional right to speedy trials, issuing inappropriate sentences, and incomplete records.


National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
1660 L St., NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 872-8600 • Fax (202) 872-8690 • assist@nacdl.org