Delayed Release of Body-Cam Video from Pfeifer Named Judicial Conference Cincinnati Police Shooting Was Reasonable (p. 3) Executive Director (p. 10) January 2017 The lives of many poor, non-violent offenders have been upended and their futures jeopardized by unaffordable court fines, fees, and bail. (Story on p. 6) 2 • JANUARY 2017 • CNO REVIEW About Court News Ohio Court News Ohio is a service of the Office of Public Information of the Supreme Court of Ohio and Ohio Government Telecommunications. Court News Ohio includes a website (courtnewsohio.gov), a monthly the January Issue publication (CNO Review), a Inside television program (CNOTV), a Facebook page (facebook. com/courtnewsohio), a Twitter 3 Cases feed (@courtnewsohio), and a Law Enforcement Dash-Cam Videos YouTube channel (youtube.com/ Are Public Records Subject to Redaction CourtNewsOhioTV). Content is produced and edited 4 Happening Now by the Public Information staff Attorneys Asked to Document with video production assistance Their Pro Bono Work from the staff of Ohio Government Telecommunications. The views expressed in CNO content do 6 Cover Story not necessarily reflect those of Unjust Costs: The lives of many poor, non- the justices of the Supreme Court violent offenders have been upended and of Ohio, and the justices do not their futures jeopardized by unaffordable exercise direct editorial control over court fines, fees, and bail the content. Submissions can be e-mailed to 8 Legislative Digest [email protected] or sent through Compilation of Bills and Resolutions the U.S. mail to: Introduced by the Ohio General Assembly of Interest to the Judicial Community Court News Ohio 65 S. Front Street 10th Floor 9 Rule Amendment Summary Columbus, Ohio 43215 Court Amends Statewide Rules Governing Court-Appointed Lawyers A free monthly subscription to the CNO Review can be requested by e-mail or U.S. mail, or by calling 10 On the Bench 614.387.9250. Pfeifer Named Judicial Conference Executive Director facebook.com/courtnewsohio 12 The Agenda @courtnewsohio Upcoming Events, Training Opportunities, and Conferences youtube.com/CourtNewsOhioTV for Judges and Court Staff Cover Image: Thinkstock CNO REVIEW • JANUARY 2017 • 3 Visit courtnewsohio.gov for the most current decisions from the Ohio Supreme Court, Courts of Appeals, and Cases Court of Claims. Supreme Court of Ohio record. Justice William M. O’Neill damages may be awarded if the wrote the he would have awarded records are not provided promptly. Law Enforcement Dash-Cam attorney fees to the newspaper. Justice Lanzinger explained while Videos Are Public Records State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer there is no deadline in the law for providing the records, public offices Subject to Redaction v. Ohio Dept. of Public Safety Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-7987 are required to make them available Ohio law enforcement dash-cam in a reasonable period of time. recordings are public records that Citing a 2009 case, Justice cannot be shielded in their entirety, Delayed Release of Body-Cam Lanzinger noted that the Court but portions considered “investigatory Video from Cincinnati Police found the law gives a public office an work product” can be withheld, opportunity to examine the records the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Shooting Was Reasonable prior to release in order to make unanimously on Dec. 6. The Hamilton County prosecutor redactions of material that is exempt The Court determined that the acted reasonably when he publicly under the records act. Ohio State Highway Patrol should released a University of Cincinnati State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Deters have promptly released to the police body-cam video six business Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-8195 Cincinnati Enquirer more than an days after receiving it, the Ohio hour of video from three dash-cam Supreme Court ruled Dec. 20. recordings of a January 2015 police The Supreme Court denied six chase and subsequent crash. The media outlets’ requests for statutory Damage Caps Constitutional patrol did not release the video until damages and attorney fees. The news When Applied to Sexual May, two months after the driver’s organizations had filed a lawsuit to Assault of Minor conviction for fleeing and other require Prosecutor Joe Deters to Capping damages awarded in a crimes. release video of Officer Ray Tensing’s civil lawsuit to a teenage victim of a In the lead opinion, Justice Judith fatal shooting on July 19 of Samuel sexual assault did not violate the girl’s L. French announced the Court DuBose. Deters provided the media constitutional rights, the Supreme declined to adopt a rule that all the video on July 29 after securing a Court ruled Dec. 14. dash-cam video can be withheld by grand jury indictment of Tensing. The Court affirmed the Fifth law enforcement until a suspect is Writing for the majority, Justice District Court of Appeals decision prosecuted, or that recordings in their Judith Ann Lanzinger noted Ohio’s allowing a $3.6 million jury verdict entirety are public records subject to public records act, R.C. 149.43, does in favor of Jessica Simpkins to be prompt release. A case-by-case review not set a deadline for a public office reduced to $500,000 when the trial is necessary to determine how much responses to requests for public court applied limits on “noneconomic of a recording must be disclosed, she records, but only requires that a copy damages,” which the Ohio General wrote. be made available in a reasonable Assembly enacted as part of a 2005 Of the three state patrol period of time. The Court decision “tort reform” law. recordings requested by the Enquirer does not address claims by the Writing the Court’s lead opinion, of the chase of Aaron Teofilo, only prosecutor’s office that body-cam Justice French wrote there may be 90 seconds from one trooper’s dash footage is exempt from the public a set of circumstances where the cam could be considered investigatory records law. statutory damages caps would prove work product under the state public Justice Lanzinger noted that unconstitutional, but the law “as records law, the Court concluded. Deters released the video on July applied to the facts before us” is The Court declined to award the 29, two days after the complaint constitutional. Enquirer attorney fees, damages, and was filed, and noted it was released Simpkins and her father sued their court costs, noting the patrol acted “immediately after the grand jury church and former church leaders in good faith based on a 2014 court concluded its deliberations” and claiming that in March 2008, Brian of appeals opinion that found the indicted Tensing. Williams, the senior pastor of Sunbury dash-cam recordings were not public The opinion noted that statutory Grace Brethren Church, forced oral Continued on p. 4. 4 • JANUARY 2017 • CNO REVIEW Continued from p. 3. and vaginal intercourse with Simpkins briefs with the Supreme Court in a The Court ruled that because who was 15 years old at the time. discretionary appeal and an appeal children are constitutionally required Williams was convicted of two counts of right and found that an appeal to be treated differently from adults of sexual battery and sentenced to two of right reaches the merits stage for purposes of sentencing, juvenile four-year prison terms. more quickly than the discretionary procedures also must account for the In separate dissenting opinions, appeal currently afforded to capital differences between children and Justices William M. O’Neill and Paul offenders. adults. E. Pfeifer argued that the General With this ruling, Tyrone Noling, Further, the Court said the Assembly’s caps on jury awards are who was convicted of the 1990 mandatory-transfer statutes preclude unconstitutional and can only be murders of a Portage County couple, a juvenile court judge from taking any imposed by an amendment to the is entitled to have his post-conviction individual circumstances into account Ohio Constitution. DNA testing appeal heard by the before automatically sending a child Simpkins v. Grace Brethren Church Supreme Court. He has 45 days to file who is 16 or older to adult court. of Delaware, Ohio a brief arguing the merits of his case. Instead, the Court ruled that juvenile Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-8118 Justice Terrence O’Donnell court judges must be allowed the agreed with the majority that the discretion that the General Assembly different appeals processes are permits for other children and should Post-Conviction DNA unconstitutional, but dissented from be able to distinguish between those the remedy. He would sever the children who should be treated as Testing Appeals Process relevant statute, R.C. 2953.73(E), in its adults and those who should not. Unconstitutional entirety. Because the Court determined that The Supreme Court ruled Dec. 21 State v. Noling the mandatory-transfer provisions of that part of the state law that limits the Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-8252 R.C. 2152.10(A) and 2152.12(A) are appeals of capital offenders seeking unconstitutional, it severed those DNA testing after a conviction is provisions from the law. unconstitutional. Mandatory Transfer of State v. Aalim The statute violates constitutional Juveniles to Adult Courts Is Slip Opinion No. 2016-Ohio-8278 rights to equal protection because it creates a different appellate process Unconstitutional for capital and noncapital offenders The Supreme Court ruled Dec. by giving offenders sentenced to 22 that mandatory transfer of Most Criminal Investigation death only the possibility, rather than juveniles to the common pleas Records Become Public When the right, to have their appeal heard, courts violates juveniles’ right to due Trial Concludes Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor process as guaranteed by the Ohio Most law enforcement records explained in the 4-3 decision.