State senator: Hunter case 'spiraling out of control'

A state senator who has supported Tracie Hunter since her run for judge five years ago said Monday the case against her should be dropped.

State Sen. Cecil Thomas – who has been a supporter of Hunter’s since her 2010 run for judge and the subsequent fight to get votes counted that won her the seat – said the continued prosecution of her has been "a waste of taxpayer dollars."

“This should never have got to this level," Thomas said, standing outside a courtroom after a pretrial hearing was moved to Oct. 20. "It's spiraling out of control."

Thomas, D-North Avondale, put the cost of prosecuting Hunter in a second trial at $1 million. Two special prosecutors have been handling the case. Thomas and others say the charges are part of a continued process to keep Hunter from serving as judge – which they say goes back to the 2010 election, when Hunter had to fight for a vote recount.

On Monday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, it was revealed that Hunter, a suspended Juvenile Court judge, will now be represented by longtime Cincinnati attorney, Louis Sirkin.

In court a month ago, attorney Clyde Bennett II surprised everyone by asking to be removed from the case, saying only that the relationship between himself and Hunter was “irreparable.”

Sirkin, however, was not in the courtroom Monday. Attorney Jennifer Branch appeared on his behalf.

Judge Patrick Dinkelacker said a trial date will be chosen at the Oct. 20 hearing. The trial had been set to begin in early September, but Bennett’s removal delayed it.

Hunter faces nine counts, including theft and perjury.

Prosecutors say she used a county credit card to pay for her personal court filings in the Ohio Supreme Court, used backdated court documents to prevent prosecutors from appealing her decisions, and arranged for her brother, a Juvenile Court employee, to report to work on an off-day so he could earn overtime.

Hunter stood trial last fall, and a jury convicted her of one count but couldn’t agree on verdicts related to eight others. The ninth count was added in March. She was found guilty of providing confidential documents to her brother, who was fired for punching a teen inmate, so he could use them in a disciplinary hearing.

She was sentenced to six months in jail, but the Ohio Supreme Court has allowed her to remain free while she appeals.