CLEVELAND, Ohio-Former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze (pictured), a Democrat on the bench since 2009 and a former administrative judge of the court who resigned from the bench late last year after being charged in Common Pleas Court with third-degree felony tampering with records, was sentenced Monday to 60 days in jail and handed a $10,000 fine. She faced up to three years in prison.

Under Ohio law, a judge is automatically disqualified from acting in his or her official capacity while a felony charge is pending. Celebrezze's current term ends in January 2027. Her law license has been suspended by the Ohio Supreme Court for two years, with one year stayed. County Prosecutor Mike O' Malley bragged about the prosecution to the mainstream media, an indication, said sources, that it might have been politically motivated, although Celebreezze and O'Malley are both Democrats in a county that is a Democratic stronghold.

• The Charges: Celebrezze pleaded guilty on February 4, 2026, to a third-degree felony count of tampering with records.
• The Misconduct: In January 2023, she manually assigned a lucrative divorce case to herself but falsely logged in court journal entries that the assignment was randomly generated.
• The Motive: The manual assignment was used to steer high-paying, court-appointed receiver work to her longtime friend, Mark Dottore. Dottore's company was approved for nearly $500,000 in fees across multiple cases under her supervision.
• The Investigation: The criminal case followed a joint probe by the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office and the Cleveland FBI field office, sparked by initial investigative reporting from The Marshall Project - Cleveland.

Activists Demand Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Reforms

Community activists of Cleveland are calling for a consent decree for Common Pleas Court reforms between the county and the U.S. Department of Justice, one similar to the consent decree in Cleveland for police reforms that remains pending in federal court behind several high-profile police killings of Blacks since 2012 like 12-year-old Tamir Rice and 38-year-old Tanisha Anderson, who was slammed to the ground and murdered. Activists say that the case of Judge Celebrezze is also an eye-opener and that it is indicative of a larger problem with the county's racist and corrupt legal system. They say that O'Malley, himself, should be indicted for documented tampering with records and covering up fixed indictments against Blacks, among other malfeasance-type activities.