NEWS

Judge in officer murder case tough and experienced

Sharon Coolidge
scoolidge@enquirer.com
Judge Megan Shanahan presides over Ray Tensing’s arraignment at the Hamilton County Courthouse on July 30. Tensing pleaded not guilty to the murder of Samuel DuBose, who was fatally shot during a routine traffic stop on July 19 and was issued a $1 million dollar bond.

When court officials randomly chose the judge that would hear the murder case against the police officer accused of killing Samuel DuBose, the name that popped out was Megan Shanahan.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Shanahan showed during former officer Ray Tensing’s three-minute arraignment just how tough she is.

“Ladies and gentleman, this is a courtroom. You will conduct yourself at all times appropriately,” she told the crowd in voice that can only be described as the one a mother uses when she’s about to invoke her child’s middle name.

Her tone alone hushed the crowd.

Shanahan comes to the job after 15 years as a prosecutor, first in Butler County, where she made a name for herself by prosecuting the then-largest ever child pornography case in the county.

When Joe Deters returned to the job of Hamilton County Prosecutor in 2005, he invited Shanahan to join his staff as a felony prosecutor.

She was part of the team that prosecuted Ryan Dieterle, the Blue Ash man who killed his wife, Michelle, despite a protection order.

And she prosecuted John Strutz, a Delhi Township man who killed his wife, then dismembered her and disposed of her body in large trash bins all over Cincinnati while their kids were in the car. Shanahan was a master with the evidence, matching saw marks to tiny bone fragments, an effort that resulted in a life prison sentence for Strutz.

In 2008 she pioneered using closed-circuit testimony in Hamilton County for a 7-year-old boy who witnessed a rape. Using cameras meant the boy didn’t have to be in the room with the defendant, but the defendant’s rights were preserved.

While she may have been a prosecutor, she ended up the key witness in the abduction case against former Cincinnati police officer Julian Steele. Steele was convicted in 2009 of intimidation and two counts of abduction after he arrested a juvenile in an attempt to get the teen’s mother to implicate another suspect. He told Shanahan his strategy. She acted quickly, making sure the teen was released from jail. Steele is serving a four-year prison sentence, started after a long delay due to the appeal process.

In 2011, Shanahan, a Republican, ran against Democrat Matt Fellerhoff for his Hamilton County Municipal Judge seat, defeating him.

“I knew out of the gate I wanted to be a judge,” said Shanahan, who graduated from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Law. “I think it’s one of the most challenging positions to be in. To take the role as referee fascinated me, and I was intrigued by the challenge.”

Shanahan’s cases as a prosecutor drew local attention, but she’s about to be thrust into the national spotlight, if Thursday is any indication. Dozens of journalists from all over the country crowded into her courtroom to get a glimpse of Tensing. The trial will likely be no different.