Politics & Government

Kent Court Working Through Backlog of Old Cases

Hundreds of cases from past judge left unresolved are slowly being disposed of

Hundreds of back court cases are slowly being reprocessed by staff at the and Portage County Municipal Court Judge Kevin Poland.

Close to 700 pre-trial diversion cases were left in need of action by former Kent Municipal Court Judge John Plough, who did not seek re-election to the bench after a term marred by complaints to, and admonitions from, the Ohio Supreme Court.

Poland said the pre-trial diversion cases numbered about 680 at one point. In many of Plough's pre-trial diversion cases, defendants agreed to plead guilty for the promise of eventual dismissal of their charges provided they completed several court-ordered tasks. The pre-trial diversion cases are mostly charges of underage drinking, disorderly conduct and other minor offenses. The majority of the cases stemmed from charges filed by either the or Kent State University Police.

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In March, Poland provided Kent Patch with a list of 428 remaining pre-trial diversion cases the court had yet to process. An analysis of those cases by Kent Patch showed 44 percent were open and still needed court action as of mid-June.

The remaining pre-trial diversion cases broke down as follows:

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  • Total cases: 428
  • Open cases: 188 (44 percent)
  • Closed cases: 110 (26 percent)
  • No record/sealed: 130 (30 percent)

The cases that fall into the "no record" or "sealed" category were cases in the list provided by the judge that showed no record for the original case number or defendant's name in the county's online court records database.

The majority of those are likely cases that were expunged and sealed, though Poland said in some cases original records were lost and the court had to build a new record for the defendant.

In at least 10 cases, the court staff could not find files for the cases.

The cases reviewed by Kent Patch range from charges filed in 2006 to 2009. Close to half of the cases, 200, are from 2009, during Plough's last year on the bench.

Poland estimated in March that they should be able to address all of Plough's leftover cases by the end of October. He also said that, in light of Plough's cases, the court has developed a system for tracking defendants in the pre-trial diversion system to avoid a similar situation from developing in the future.

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