Former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze was sentenced to 60 days in county jail Monday, four months after pleading guilty to tampering with records.
Celebrezze鈥檚 guilty plea in February came after raised issues about her practice of steering work to long-time family friend and court-appointed receiver Mark Dottore in lucrative divorce cases that went through Celebrezze鈥檚 court.
After the practice came to light, Celebrezze was investigated by the FBI, removed from practicing law for one year by the Ohio Supreme Court and retired from the bench last year.
Celebrezze pleaded guilty to the single felony before the case was brought to a grand jury.
The prosecutor鈥檚 office did not request jail time, but visiting Judge Mark Wiest, a retired Wayne County Common Pleas Court judge, said during sentencing that Celebrezze鈥檚 status as a public official led him to impose this sentence.
鈥淎s a judge who鈥檚 on the bench for 43 years, plus 3-and-a-half years in retirement, it concerns me the harm to the judiciary that something like this causes,鈥� said Wiest.
Wiest laid out the specifics of the case prior to sentencing 鈥� A very contentious divorce case came to Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court in 2020. In 2023, Celebrezze offered to take the case off the hands of a colleague and, instead of randomly assigning it to another judge, gave it to herself and falsified the record saying it was randomly assigned.
Later, Celebrezze sought to have Dottore appointed as a mediator during settlement negotiations in the divorce case. Both parties objected, and Celebrezze recused herself from the case.
鈥淕overnment officials, judges, mayors, elected officials are not held in high esteem by the public right now. And something like this, when it is reported to the public, just lowers that esteem,鈥� said Wiest, right before announcing the jail term.
鈥淚 also think about the hundreds of other judges in this state who go through their day, doing the right thing, following the rules of superintendence, the harm it might do to them when the people in their county call these judges crooked, corrupt,鈥� said Wiest.
Celebrezze will also have to pay a fine of $10,000.
After the verdict was read, Celebrezze was led to a room to the side of the court by sheriff鈥檚 deputies to begin serving her sentence.
