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[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_02]: This is the Jeff, Lori and Nick Show!
[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Jeff, Lori and Nick Show and of course we are an informative show that's presented to solve solutions to problems that we have in our lives and in our communities, in our nation.
[00:01:42] [SPEAKER_01]: Today we have a guest attorney, Tim Hess.
[00:01:47] [SPEAKER_01]: He is running as a candidate for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to our show, Tim. How are you this morning?
[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Very good. Thank you for having me. It's a privilege to be here. I really appreciate it.
[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much. Tim Hess, a great candidate, well known in the legal circles.
[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Tim, give us a little bit of your background. What type of law do you practice and so forth?
[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, when I started out in 2002, actually was working as a foreign attorney from about 97 through 2001, passed the bar in 2002.
[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I started out in a plaintiff's firm. So, you know, car accidents, medical malpractice, personal injury, that kind of stuff.
[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Small boutique firm started out there, was there for about three years and I wanted to also do criminal defense work, something I've always wanted to do.
[00:02:48] [SPEAKER_00]: I went to college at Kent State for criminal justice and criminology and psychology.
[00:02:53] [SPEAKER_00]: And then of course, you know, in law school kind of really honed in on focusing on criminal defense and criminal law.
[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So, Mark, who I work for, we're still good friends. In fact, I office with him now. We separated and amicably and I started out on my own.
[00:03:13] [SPEAKER_00]: So in the beginning, as a young solo practitioner, it was do what you can, keep the lights on and put food on the table and bills.
[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So I did a little bit of everything. I dabbled in a couple divorces. I learned I never definitely didn't want to do that again.
[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I did some business law, I did some liquor law, I continued with personal injury and of course then I got into doing criminal defense.
[00:03:41] [SPEAKER_00]: And I did a little bit of here and there with a focus on criminal defense up until about 2010.
[00:03:50] [SPEAKER_00]: And then about 2010, I just strictly focused on criminal defense work and also representing people for civil rights claims against the state.
[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we saw a lot of this, we're not seeing it as much anymore thankfully, I think with the advent of body cameras.
[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_00]: But in early 2010s, we were representing people who were, you know, abused or assaulted by police officers, jail staff, things of that nature.
[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So I still do that. I have a friend of mine that I work with by the name of Paul Cristallo. He's really good on those cases.
[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: But I do primarily criminal defense and I like it. It keeps me busy. I'm in trial a lot. I'm in the courthouse almost every day.
[00:04:39] [SPEAKER_00]: So, yeah, that's pretty much my focus now.
[00:04:42] [SPEAKER_00]: So why are you running for judge of the court come please?
[00:04:47] [SPEAKER_00]: When I decided I was going to run probably around 2017.
[00:04:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I approached a judge told her I was going to probably run for her seat.
[00:04:58] [SPEAKER_00]: She said, okay, you've got the experience. I think you can do it because a lot of people they did very, you know, you only have to practice law for six years, I believe is where you can run for judge.
[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_01]: You definitely have the experience.
[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I've got the experience now and I tacked on some years since 2017 so 2017 it was in my mind.
[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think around COVID when I saw, well, I shouldn't say that there was some things as I over the years I've seen some some things I didn't like going in the courtroom.
[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I practiced all over Ohio federal court state court mayors court Muni court you name it and I've seen good judges and I've seen bad judges and I would like to believe that when I get on the bench, I will be a good judge because I have the experience in front of
[00:05:46] [SPEAKER_00]: a whole array of of judges.
[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: But 2020 really kind of set it off for me because I saw just an even more trampling of our civil rights, the trampling of our constitutional rights.
[00:06:04] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, defendants not being able to have their cases heard because of COVID, because of these crazy restrictions that were placed in the courthouse, you know, jurors didn't want to come down.
[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Cases were just lying out there, you know, and people weren't having their day in court.
[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_00]: So, while I wanted to do it for a long time, I think 2020 was a tipping point for me to say you know what this isn't right.
[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00]: The Constitution doesn't take a pause, because we have a virus that's floating around our country.
[00:06:36] [SPEAKER_00]: So I decided to run for judge in 2022.
[00:06:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Great. So, so one of the things that are issued should I say that really is on the minds of a lot of our listeners and just citizens is crime and safety.
[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, we always hear that, you know, crime is on the decrease. However, folks are scared.
[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_01]: People are scared to walk their neighborhoods. They're scared to jog on their own.
[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_01]: People are scared to drive and pump gas, pull up at a gas station if they're skeptical about whether or not there's safe in just their daily activities.
[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_01]: What would you as a judge do?
[00:07:16] [SPEAKER_01]: Or could you just speak to that whole issue of crime and safety?
[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_01]: What would you do to help?
[00:07:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's first address the idea that this talking point that keeps coming out that crime is decreasing.
[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_00]: That's not true. The reason that a lot of people like to cite statistics and say that crime is decreasing is for two-fold.
[00:07:38] [SPEAKER_00]: One, the FBI reporting changed their the way in which they report statistics on crime in around, I think it was around 20 or 2021.
[00:07:51] [SPEAKER_00]: So major metropolitan areas like New York, California, Chicago, they're not reporting their homicides.
[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: They're not reporting major felony cases.
[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_00]: So it appears that crime is going down. But, you know, don't trust your lying eyes because, you know, obviously people who actually live in these areas can tell you something differently.
[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_00]: So that's one. Two, when you have prosecutors in some of these major metropolitan areas who have gone down this road of, you know, we need to treat the comfort of the criminal better than the comfort of the citizen.
[00:08:25] [SPEAKER_00]: So we're not going to prosecute somebody who steals $999 worth of goods from a mom and pop shop.
[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_00]: When you have prosecutors who, you know, let murderers, rapists and robbers walk out walking the jail and walk out the back door on a no bail, you know, no cash bail, and then go out and commit more crimes.
[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, if you don't prosecute crimes, how are you going to know that there's being crimes committed? Right.
[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: So I just want to address that briefly with regard to community safety. The other thing that I think would come into the play of this is what I had just mentioned, which is the the idea that bail should somehow we shouldn't we shouldn't impose a bail or a bond on a defendant.
[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, there's I think five principle reasons for bond protection of the safety of the community. Right. The likelihood of the offender to abscond, whether or not a weapon was used the seriousness of the crime.
[00:09:27] [SPEAKER_00]: And I can't think of the other one on top of my head right now.
[00:09:30] [SPEAKER_00]: But there was a case that came out a few years back, the bows that said that judges could not consider the threat to the community of the defendant and safety, the community when when imposing a bond. I mean, that's really the main job of a judge.
[00:09:52] [SPEAKER_01]: Right. It's amazing that, right. It's amazing that voters, citizens, the community put the judge there. And then for their safety and to do to provide services that are in judgments that are going to improve their lives but then here comes a ruling that says, you can't even think about that.
[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_00]: Right. So it doesn't make sense. No, it doesn't. And I think, you know, I think it was in 2022 we passed one of the issues it was issue one or should three which basically said, look, a judge should consider the safety of the community when imposing a bond or a bail.
[00:10:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So we corrected that. Okay, but that is something that a judge absolutely needs to look at. Now I don't think that, you know, low level felonies where a guy is, you know, maybe he's got a drug issue or a mental health issue. And you know, he stole something that got him a felony five charge.
[00:10:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Does that individual need to be languishing in our jail? Absolutely not. Okay, it's not going to improve his life in any way. It's not going to get him help and the resources that he may need while his case is pending.
[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't believe that that's necessary. A murderer, a rapist, a robber, somebody who takes a gun and puts it in somebody's face to force them to do something against their will. That person is a threat to our community. That person is a danger to society.
[00:11:17] [SPEAKER_00]: That person absolutely should have a high bond. And people think, oh well if you're a fluent and rich you can afford the bond and it's only it privileges the wealthy.
[00:11:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Well they may have the means to be able to do it. You also have to think of somebody who commits crimes, maybe a drug dealer who makes more money than sometimes the hard working blue collar guy who's, you know, swinging a pickaxe or working on a factory line.
[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But the idea is if they pay that money, because if you have a $200,000 bond and most scenarios they're not paying a $200,000 they're paying a bondsman 20,000, 10% to then be released from jail.
[00:12:03] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you come up with that kind of money, you are now invested in your case. And you now have a duty to appear. You have an obligation to be invested in your case.
[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_00]: And I think it creates that investment to where a defendant says, well wow if I don't show up to court where I go out and commit a new crime and violate my bond they're going to ask for that other, you know, $800,000 or whatever it is.
[00:12:31] [SPEAKER_00]: And or you know $86,000 and the bondsman is going to be coming after me to look for it. You know, dog to Bonnie Hunter right that's his job he goes out and he finds people who ditches skips bond and brings him back to court.
[00:12:43] [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't think it's just a thing that privileges the affluent. I think it also causes defendants to be invested in their case to know that they're going to show up and they have to show up, and they got to keep their nose clean while they're out on bond and not get more cases that would reduce the recidivism for people who are released on a bond.
[00:13:05] [SPEAKER_01]: I agree totally, especially with these cases that have been in the news where folks have been released no but no bad no bond just out.
[00:13:14] [SPEAKER_01]: And then they go out they terrorize the community commit another crime right back in jail and then the judge and the community as why were they let free.
[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_01]: And so that needs to be addressed and Tim has Tim has your perspective on that is right on right on point.
[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_01]: And you would be a good judge if that's your temperament as it really relates to crime and safety of the community.
[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_01]: You have women seniors that go out and vote for these judges, and then they don't protect their interests and their safety, which makes no sense at all.
[00:13:56] [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, so investing our vote with Tim has with you would without a doubt help bring safety to our community.
[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_01]: Can you speak to the issue of like mental health court.
[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and that kind of ties in. Thank you. It kind of ties into, you know, the community safety and what I was talking about is low level offenses.
[00:14:20] [SPEAKER_00]: Not all low level offenses are committed only by mental health people with mental health issues. 93% of our psychological hospitals that are run by the state in this in this state.
[00:14:31] [SPEAKER_00]: 93% of those beds are taken up by people who are there by order of the court. Okay, one in three inmates in our jails and in our prisons have a mental health issue.
[00:14:44] [SPEAKER_00]: Prisons and jail should not be houses for those with mentally mental mental health issues.
[00:14:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Now I get sometimes people with mental health issues commit serious grievous crimes.
[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_00]: And maybe that's where they belong. Okay, to protect society. But we need to figure out what we can do to an alternate path for people with mental health issues right now I believe we have five mental health court judges.
[00:15:10] [SPEAKER_00]: I think that number should be increased to at least 10 we have 34 judges on the bench. I would like to see at some point 12 to 15 of our judges handle mental health court cases, and by increasing the number of judges who handle mental health court cases, maybe we can have judges who specialize in other words, depression
[00:15:29] [SPEAKER_00]: anxiety for this judge this judge handles bipolar disorder and manic depression this judge handles schizophrenia, and a multitude of higher level mental health issues.
[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think we could do that if we put more judges in the mental health court on the bench.
[00:15:46] [SPEAKER_01]: There's so much anger that goes along with these issues, especially when there's a murder or death involved, you know, by someone someone with mental illness. So without a doubt.
[00:16:03] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there needs to be more judges assigned to these cases and there's there needs to be more preventive care as well.
[00:16:11] [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to take a quick break right now. We're going to ask our audience just to stay with us and we'll be right back with candidate for Common Pleas Court, Tim Hess, Tim Hess, attorney Tim Hess.
[00:16:23] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[00:16:28] [SPEAKER_01]: With attorney Tim Hess, candidate for Ky-Hogan County Common Pleas Court.
[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Tim, can you speak to the issue of probation? A lot of folks are on probation and how can you enhance that whole area of the courts.
[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you. Probation.
[00:16:52] [SPEAKER_00]: The problem with probation, a lot of it is, you know, they just want to make sure that you're not getting in trouble or maybe you're not using drugs.
[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_00]: And some judges will say, look, I want you to have a full-time job or at least 35 hours a week. I want a W-2 submitted. You know what I mean?
[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I want you to be a tax pan earning member of our society and I applaud that.
[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Not all the judges do they put you on probation and they say, well whatever the probation department deems necessary, you got to abide by the terms and conditions of what they said. Okay.
[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_00]: What is your approach?
[00:17:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I would, my approach would be, I think there needs to be some more services provided to probationers. I think the probation department, and I'm sure that in some extent they already do this, but I think it needs to be expanded.
[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Probation department should be reaching out to local employers, local businessmen, local unions for that matter, and to try to get these people jobs.
[00:17:49] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, the whole, you know, the idle hands are the devil's playground or however I'm sure I butchered that quote from the Bible. But you know, it's true.
[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_00]: You know, a lot of these guys, they get out, they go back to their same buddies on the street and doing the same stuff.
[00:18:05] [SPEAKER_00]: And then the next thing you know, they're back in front of the judge because they have a positive drug screen or they were caught with somebody else who was charged with a felony.
[00:18:14] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think if we can get people working, you know, the old another old Bible quote, if you give a man officially for a day, if you teach him official eat for a lifetime.
[00:18:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of these guys have given the opportunity to actually earn a wage, support your family and understand what the benefits of a hard day's work is and the self accomplishment of that.
[00:18:38] [SPEAKER_00]: I think we could make some progress there. So rather than just come down peanut cup and don't get in trouble. I think we really should focus on trying to get people in a better situation in life through our probation department.
[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that sounds so good.
[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_01]: Right now, I guess a lot of our audiences really probably not familiar with this whole area of probation.
[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_01]: But if we could get those services there kind of tied in, I think that would make a big difference.
[00:19:10] [SPEAKER_01]: What about this area of disparate sentencing? Because, you know, oftentimes folks feel as though and cry out, hey, that sentence was not fair was not just what is your approach to sentencing so that it shows fairness and, you know, across the board.
[00:19:30] [SPEAKER_01]: It's it's it's equal.
[00:19:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, one of the reasons I ran in 2022 and against the opponent that I did was because there was national news made by a woman that he sentenced versus the sentence that another female in another courtroom.
[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_00]: He did not sentence both of the two individuals.
[00:19:49] [SPEAKER_00]: So quite one in another courtroom and bezled a lot of money. She got probation.
[00:19:53] [SPEAKER_00]: A black female in his courtroom got a harsher sentence.
[00:19:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Now there were some things about that. You know, the first woman was able to pay a good amount of the restitution back even though she stole more black female was not.
[00:20:14] [SPEAKER_00]: Ultimately, the judge did not even send her to even though he sent to prison. He reversed his sentencing. She was in jail for a while and then he released her and put around probation.
[00:20:23] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think and since then, I think this judge that I ran against in 2022 is actually a part of the pilot program that the judges are trying to build a sentencing database.
[00:20:34] [SPEAKER_00]: So if I have an individual in front of me who committed, you know, ex felony of the second degree has this kind of similar attributes has this kind of similar circumstances and facts to the case.
[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_00]: I can look at other sentences around the state and say, well, this guy down in Hamilton County got, you know, five years. This guy in Youngstown got six. The guy over here in Toledo got four.
[00:21:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know what? I think that it would probably be fair if I gave this guy five years, right?
[00:21:04] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm probably oversimplifying the sentencing guy. There's no guidelines, but the sentencing database. But I think that would be a good thing to have and somehow the ability to make it accessible to the private citizen would have to be very fine tailored as to not expose any, you know, private information like that.
[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that's something that we should continue to look into and improve on is a sentencing days, data space so we can avoid disparate not desperate sentencing. So yeah, I would definitely want to be a part of that.
[00:21:41] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think that makes a big difference. And I think you as a candidate and as a judge would definitely stand out and receive a lot of accolades because for creating that database because there's always cries for equal justice under the law and in sentencing this would really make a difference and bring a lot of trust increase trust and increase the integrity of the
[00:22:11] [SPEAKER_01]: court. So Tim has you are again right on point by, you know, making that appeal to or effort to create some type of a database that would help judges get to that balance that that right point in sentencing so that there's no outcry of the citizens or the public or any groups.
[00:22:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Saying that the sentencing was just wrong. So that's, but also there's another issue and when we listen to the judicial system and judges talk about the backlog of cases and maybe civil cases. Can you kind of speak to that oftentimes, you know,
[00:23:01] [SPEAKER_01]: There's an outcry again from the public they say hey it's just taking so long to get to this this case what can you do or what can be done to improve that.
[00:23:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure. So one of the things that we often hear and having practiced in the civil realm is that cases take two, three, four years to make their way to finally having their day in court. That's just unacceptable.
[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_00]: And one of the reasons I believe that this is is unfortunately and particularly in Kyogre County. We have a large number of our judges who are former prosecutors. It's what I call the prosecutor to the bench pipeline, I myself was never a prosecutor.
[00:23:43] [SPEAKER_00]: And I don't, you know, disparage anybody who was I think it's a great way to get experienced great way to get trial experience. But for some reason of our 34 judges I want to say of my knowledge at least half of them if not more are former prosecutors.
[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_00]: And what that tends to do is cause these judges to want to get into the juicy and fun, you know, interesting and salacious cases of murder. And you know the murder cases the rape cases the felonious assault cases, the ones that are, you know, have the gritty details and that they're used to working on because they were prosecutors.
[00:24:21] [SPEAKER_00]: And we have a couple of defense attorneys and public defenders that are on our bench to the problem with that is we know we have too many judges on our bench that came from the civil world.
[00:24:30] [SPEAKER_00]: And those cases tend to get back burner now there is certain rules and laws and of court that say criminal cases do take a precedent, especially if they're over time.
[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, this case has to be brought to not infringe on somebody's civil rights right they can't be held in jail indefinitely and say well we're just going to keep putting your case off.
[00:24:52] [SPEAKER_00]: So there are some rules that judges have to follow and say look this this criminal criminal trial takes precedent. It's getting old. I got a postpone this civil trial for this criminal trial.
[00:25:01] [SPEAKER_00]: But a friend of mine who's on the bench recently take took the bench said it's amazing how many civil trials he's trying to get through an update and bring people in and say we got to get moving on this he's got cases that are two three four years old, and he's trying to get moving.
[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_00]: So they don't spin cases across the street anymore what that means is they used to send a case over to a visiting judge now they have to be handled by the judge.
[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's something I would like to focus on is to up, you know, speed along the civil case dockets. There are states, I believe like Tennessee and some other jurisdictions where actually they have judges who only handle civil cases and judges who only handle criminal.
[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if we'll ever get to that point. But it sounds like a pretty efficient program that maybe we can explore down the road.
[00:25:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Wow. Thank you, Tim has you certainly unpacked a lot and we certainly look forward to your being successful this November.
[00:25:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. Let's remember Tim has attorney Tim has candidate for Kyle County Common Police Court. Thank you again Tim for sharing with us. Thank you to our audience and let's all remember to keep fighting with good fight strengthen our communities are cities are regions and we can make this country a better place.
[00:26:18] [SPEAKER_01]: And let's remember that we can all do our part to do better and make it a better place.
[00:26:36] [SPEAKER_02]: This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast network where real talk lives. Visitors online at FCB podcasts dot com.