This is the FCB Podcast Network. This is The Laws Extra. Welcome to the Outlaws Extra. This is DARBYO to Kingpin Marrow. Don't forget too Like us on Facebook at facebook dot com, slash the Outlaws Radio, follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the Outlaws or Radio. We have a very special interview with Timothy Clary, who is running for Cleveland Municipal Court judge. We're gonna touch on several issues in this relatively brief interview. We're gonna talk about some of the issues that he sees in the court right now, and also how his experience from being from working in the prosecutor's office and being the public defender, how that helps inform him as a potential judge. So it was a very interesting conversation. Very it's always it's always interesting to kind of take a listen to this and take a peek back behind the curtain and explore what the system looks like, and you know, talk to people who are running for office and and have their own their own plans and thoughts and things like that, and really getting a chance to see the issues that they see in the system and what they want to do to fix it. That's why we love doing these Canada interviews and bringing them to you, regardless of whether you live here or wherever you though, because all of you guys have judges and council people and mayors and stuff like that. So what we try to do is to expose as many people as possible to how things work in our system here. So I hope that you are able to get something from this interview, and like all of all the ones that we do, all the candidate interviews that we that we do here, we hope that you walk away from it learning something that you didn't know before. All right, so those of you who are familiar with our Outlaws extras know how this works. We are going to take a break now and then air the interview and its entirety. So stay tuned. You're listening to The Outlaws Extra fue Welcome back, Welcome back, and make sure that you subscribe to the show on Apple, podcast, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcast. And if you listen to this show on Apple, please make sure you leave us a five star review and a comment is very important for the algorithm and for those of you who have already done so, thank you. Oh so very much, and now for our interview with Timothy Clary. All Right, we have a very special guest on the show today. He is running for Cleveland Municipal Court judge Timothy Clary. Welcome to the show. How you doing, sir, I'm doing well, Darvio. Thank you very much for having me this afternoon. I appreciate it. All right, So talk a little bit about why you decided to run the judge. Sure, I decided to run for judge. One of the themes I've had is I generally believe that it's a bad thing when you have incumbent judges, for one, that don't have people that are running against them to hold them accountable for their behaviors in court. And a lot of these judges expect once they're elacted that they just kind of cruise on by and they're able to stay in that seat and they hope to retain it. And you know, being a defense attorney, I'm a public defender who's in court every day. I'm able to observe the temperature of the different courtrooms and stuff like that. So to me, it was important to be able to introduce myself to the people of Cleveland beyond just my own clients and give them a better alternative for having a judge on the bench. Uh huh. So what are some of the things that you would like to do if you're on the bench. What do you think that you can bring to the bench that's not there now? For one, I think it's important that everyone that comes in is treated with both respect and fairness. And the thing about municipal court is, many times you're talking about individuals just the first time they've been there. They've got they're just they're regular people. You know. They may not be career criminals or anything like that, but they may have gotten a new case. And sometimes they come in late, they come right from work, stuff like that. And I think it's important for the people of Cleveland that the judges are accommodating for them. You know, you don't I don't think you necessarily have to issue a warrant if someone shows up, you know a few minutes after nine o'clock or something like that, or if they're not dressed properly, you know, you hold them in contempt of court. Stuff like that. It's important that everyone is treated with fairness and respect. We all have different things coming on coming up. I realized that coming to court is everyone's probably last choice or close to it. But something I want everyone to know is when they walk into my core room, they're going to be treated with the respects that they that they deserve. It doesn't matter what's going on. Everyone's got due process rights everything like that. You want to be able to have a friendly courtroom. The courtroom doors are going to be open, not closed. And you know what people need to approach and speak to a bailf or something like that. We can figure it out. But I want to be available to the people because it's their courthouse and that's a big thing that I want them to know. And being a public defender, you know, I've gotten used to. I've defended people on really every type of case that comes before municipal court, oviis, misdemean results, TVs. Driving under suspension, a whole set of other driving cases. So I'm familiar with that subject matter. I've been doing it for a while. I know accept the practices in the courtroom, and I know that people don't want to keep coming back over and over again for extra pre trials. It's important to keep it moving quickly and fairly, and that actually details into my next question, which is how your experience as a public defender will inform your job as a judge should you be elected. Well, as the public defender, as I'm sure you know, Darbio, my whole job is indigent defense, so I represent people that can't afford to have their own attorney, which is the vast majority of individuals that I'm assigned to that I help out in court every day. So I'm sensitive that not everyone has the resources on their own to be able to even get to court. In some cases. Sometimes any buss basses things like that just to be able to go. One thing that's important, I think you give people the option. Some of my clients they prefer zoom the A, listen, if I can do it from home, we should just do it that way. But other people stambly they want to come in, either they don't trust it, or more importantly, they said, listen, I want to see the judge. I want to be there in person. So it's important to give people the option. I've learned from my clients that not everyone's the same and everybody expects or hopes to handle courting in a different way. Also realize the importance of as they just said before about keeping these cases moving because a lot of times and municipal court, there's not a lot of litigating going on, right. There can be, but you know, your charge with something, and the cases sometimes are oftentimes gonna be very straightforward. And as a judge, I don't want people to leave my courtroom and say, oh my goodness, I have another pre trial and then just come back and they come back over and over and over again. And that seems to be the thing with my clients that they hate the most. I mean, yeah, everyone's worried about their case. They said, well, Tim, what's going to happen? Am I going to go to jail? Etc. But the thing that that I think really bothers people. So when I say, well, you know that nothing was taken care of yet, you know, and I'm talking about my and I'm just there's so variety of things that go on in the court process, so you really need to keep it moving because people are on the time to miss work or sometimes enough childcare. They got to bring their kids with them, and that's a lot and that happens a lot with my clients. Maybe if you have I've seen a lot of people they get they go out and they get paid lawyers, and their lawyer can show up for them, and I see stuff like that going on. But my clients a lot of times they don't have the kind of options. So and they tell me, you know, I said, well, can you come into work for this hearing or can you come in and they said, well, I got I'll spend my last vacation to day. I just had a guy the other day tell me that to be able to come in for driving privileges, which is frustrating. So I want to make sure as a as a judge when I'm elected God willing, that you give people an option to be able to come in anyway that's convenient for them, because a lot of times you can't afford to miss work, and you can't just some people can't just miss a couple of hours, they have to take an entire day off, which is frustrating, and that happens a lot with no great count. The other thing, too, is just to be able to show compassion for individuals people are charged with the case and in America you're supposed to enjoy this presumption of innocence, and the problem is sometimes depending on the decisions that are made people feel like they've already been felt guilty before you're even convicted. You know, if you have bonds that are maybe considered excessive or too high, they're in jail and they can't get out, and then suddenly you know, they're sitting there in jail for weeks and weeks at a time until the case actually goes to trial. And then when the case goes to trial, sometimes the government doesn't even present witnesses and it gets dismissed to stuff like that. So it's important to look at each case individually. But you have to be mindful that we're talking about people's lives here, you know, and during a pre trial, before someone's convicted, they should be presumed innocent. And that's something I've learned as a public defend or working with people, because many of them are frightened just by having a charge on them in the first place. Right right, we're talking with sim Clary was running for Cleveland Municipal Court judge. And in your experience, whether it's as a public defender or your experience on the campaign trail this year, what have you seen that the population is typically dealing with. What are the issues that are prevalent right now among people who may be interacting with the court. One thing, I see a ton of driving on mention cases. That's one thing in particular I want to bring up. There's a pretty good art article that's put out just about a month ago. I think it was by the Marshall Project. How basically, and I'm going to tell you about something else you're in the second that's kind of related. But with these DUS cases, you get fines and you get points, and it just adds up, and people catch a DUS case and they're trying to get a valid driver's license, which is thankfully the way clean municipal court tries to treat it. Basically, if you get a driving spend case, we try to help you get a valid driver's license, and sometimes they can't, and then before you know it, they're pleading guilty of driving under suspension. They get suspended automatically from the BMVU depending on the facts, and it's like a renset and repeat, and some of them come back a couple of months later, and before you know it, you have thousands of dollars and reinstatement fees, you don't have a valid license, and you keep picking up new cases. So I've got that from a lot of my clients, and they're very frustrated. So it's important that the court and the lawyers involved do a good job trying to get the driver's license reinstated. The other thing I hear a lot about, and it's frustrating for a lot of people. You know, whether you're working or not. Are the fines in court costs? You know, and those could be appropriate depending on the case, but in my experience, usually even on the smallest cases, you're gonna get a fine, usually between like fifty and one hundred and twenty five dollars, and then you have to eat the court costs, which started one hundred forty one dollars and go up. So before you know it, a lot of times when you walk out of the court room, even on a low charge, let's say, you know, you plea guilty something very low, like it just sorly conduct or minded misman or whatever, you're gonna walk out of the way with a three hundred dollars and finds it costs that you have to pay, and that's hard to do, you know. Fortunately, Cleveland's got payment plans things like that, but it comes up a lot. So there's you know, alternatives which I think the core could use more, you know, community service. I always ask clients that would you want to do that? You want to do community service, what you know? And sometimes that works with the judges and sometimes it doesn't. But the money is a big issue that again ties into driving under suspension. But you know, those two are big issues I see and everybody, of course, they come in and they want to be treated fairly, not like a number, and that sometimes the issue with municipal cord as a docket could have you know, thirty forty fifty people on it, it can get pretty crowded up there sometimes Darby, you know, they're just lined up, and you know, people want to be given the individual attention they deserve, and you know, is it a is it a perfect process? No, but we have to make sure that time because they're coming in, they're missing work, they're doing whatever. I'm not just talking about defendants. You've got victims coming in, witnesses coming in, cops are coming in, sitting there, and it's just important that you'd be mindful of everyone's time and that that's something I've heard a lot on the campaign trail as well, you know this will what are you gonna what are you gonna change? You know, is the coming to court and my form is enjoyable as a trip to the beach. App I wouldn't think so. But it doesn't have to be like a trip to the dentist either, right, you know. So, and this is municipal cord, so we're not talking about felonies. We're talking about lower level of offenses, you know, and people should be treated accordingly. So you said you're a public defender. How long he's been a public defender. I've been a public defender since December last year. Before I was doing that, I was a county prosecutor for nine years. Okay, so what made you? What made you decide that you wanted to get involved in law in the first place. When when did you get a desire for that? Hm? Well, you know, I always wanted to go to law school. I got a history degree in college kind of knowing that, you know, I wasn't going to teach history anything like that. I wanted to be an attorney. So to answer a question, probably around high school I had the idea. I said, well, you know, I wanted to be an attorney and when I started out just taking a little bit further. I worked in private practice and that had its own thing, but to me, I wanted to be in the courtroom and I wanted to feel like I was really making a difference. So I came over to the county prosecutors in twenty fourteen. I did child support and children and family services stuff for a long time, and then I switched over to general felony and after a while, you know, I kind of saw that what the good war work that the public defenders were doing, and I came over and it's been great since I've been here. So you've seen both sides, from the prosecutor side and the public defender side. Do you think that that having that experience on both sides will be a positive impact for you being a judge? Yes? Absolutely, that's a great question one I think frankly, I don't get asked enough. I'm not coming in as a judge with some kind of agenda. Yes, I'm a public defender now, Yes I'm an ex prosecutor, But I don't have a certain mindset in my mind other than treating people fairly and following the law, which is what judges are supposed to be doing. So I have a very open mind. The problem is a lot of people in both offices, as you can imagine Jarvo, they kind of they have one way of thinking, right, and it's kind of their way or the highway. And I think it's that judges stay neutral. They don't have a guy walking the courtrooman you say, well, if he's charged, he's probably guilty. Sometimes people think like that, and sometimes it's the other way around, like you know, this is the government, this is a made up charge, something like that. So I'm very much in the middle. I don't have a certain mindset on the way I should be treating cases other than doing them fairly and officially. Like I just said, all right, and so we're talking with Tim Clary, who's running for Cleveland Missible Court judge. As we you're ready to wind down here, what is if you had to say one thing that you want the voters to know about you as a person, you as a candidate, and what you want to do on the bench, what would it be. I want the voters and the people of Cleveland to know that I have been in that courthouse and the Justice Center for a long time. I have prosecuted in many cases, and I've represented many people, and I have seen and pretty much done it all at this point, and I'm going as a judge to be open and fair to individuals that come before me. I don't have some kind of agenda. I love being in a turn, I love being in the courtroom, and I hope to show the same passion as a judge that I do as an attorney for my clients right now, and I hope many of the voters will recognize me, either my name or my face. Day. I know that I've seen him before. You know, he did good work. I hope will be a good judge, and that's what I hope they remember. Alright. Awesome, awesome, So let everybody know if they want to get in contact with you, if they want to find out more about your campaign and all that good stuff, where can it go. I have a Facebook page, Timothy W. Clary for Judge, which is pretty active and we respond and stuff like that. So this seems to be the best way to get in touch with me. Also update everything else. So Timothy W. Clary for Judge on Facebook. Okay, all right, thank you so much for coming on the show and spending some time with us. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Darvo. I have a good weekend. One more time. Thank you Timothy Clary for coming on the show. Really appreciate it. We are out of here. We'll see you next time. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com.
