Daniel Gaul has been a judge of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for 31 years. He was first appointed in 1991 by then Democratic Gov. Dick Celeste. The fact that his father, Frank Gaul, served as county treasurer from 1976 to 1995 gave him great name recognition — something that means a lot in the name game of Cuyahoga County’s judicial elections.
In 2018, Gaul faced his stiffest challenge from Republican Wanda Jones. He eked out a victory with 55% of the vote to Jones’ 45% — the closest margin in a judicial race that year.
In that race, the Cleveland Plain Dealer editorial board endorsed Jones, a judicial novice over the veteran Gaul. The editorial board found fault with Gaul’s handling of a case where he cast doubt on a jury verdict acquitting the defendant; called the African-American defendant “a brother” (Judge Gaul is white), and said he would have “busted a cap in” the defendant — street slang for shooting someone. He also compared the defendant to the Las Vegas mass murderer Stephen Paddock. In commenting on his remarks, the board said that Gaul’s conduct was “prejudicial and wrong.”
The editorial board’s decision may have been further influenced by the fact that in October of 2010, Gaul received a six-month suspended suspension from the Ohio Supreme Court. That suspension grew out of an incident where an elderly witness failed to appear in court to testify against the person who was accused of victimizing her. Though probably well intentioned, according to testimony and findings of the Supreme Court, Gaul exceeded his authority in his attempts to compel the witness’s attendance, stepping out of the role of a judge as a fair and impartial arbitrator of the facts. The Supreme Court found that Judge Gaul did not act in a manner that furthered the integrity of the judicial proceedings. (See 127 Oh St. 3rd 16 for the Court’s ruling)
On December 27, 2021, the Office of the Disciplinary Counsel, which investigates Ohio’s lawyers and judges, filed a 30-page complaint against Gaul, setting forth five counts of misconduct that spanned six years. The allegations include forcing defendants to enter a plea agreements with threats of long sentences if they did not accept the plea; inappropriate questioning of defendants during a trial; biased advocacy and inappropriate communication with an incarcerated defendant — all alleged violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct.
On April 8, 2022, the Disciplinary Counsel filed an amended complaint against Gaul, elaborating and expanding on the original charges. The 50-page amended complaint added three additional counts of wrongdoing. The details of the allegations are available online at the Ohio Disciplinary Counsel’s website (Case No. 2021-039). The amended complaint includes pages of dialogue between Gaul, defendants and lawyers that sound more like Judge Steve Harvey than a duly elected and legally trained judge who has vowed to apply the law fairly and impartially.
In one of the cases cited, Gaul coerced a defendant into taking a plea. He failed to give the required admonitions that judges must give to defendants relative to their constitutional rights and consequences of their decision to enter a plea. When the defendant appealed, the Court of Appeals recognized the error and vacated the plea. When the defendant went to trial before a new judge and a jury, he was promptly found not guilty. Sadly, the defendant sat in jail for almost two years before being exonerated.
In one of the more bizarre allegations, Gaul corresponded with a former defendant who had been found not guilty in his courtroom. The same defendant had been found guilty of similar charges in Federal District Court and sentenced to 12.5-years in jail and ordered to pay $2.6 million in restitution.
Gaul wrote three letters to the incarcerated defendant from 2014 to 2017. The judge went so far as to provide the defendant with a copy of the transcript of the proceedings that occurred in his room. His largess cost the taxpayers $400 plus $72 for mailing. When the defendant filed his federal appeal and his motion for new trial in the United States District Court, he attached Gaul’s letters to help substantiate his claims of innocence. The amended complaint alleges Gaul’s behavior, once again, violated the Code of Judicial Conduct.
In a 2016 trial over which Gaul presided, he asked the defendant 85 questions, only 16 of which the appellate court found to be pertinent to the case. The reviewing court found the others to be inadmissible and immaterial.
The judge must now respond to the allegations filed in the amended complaint. Ultimately, they will be heard by the three-judge panel appointed by the Supreme Court. That panel will make recommendations to the Ohio Supreme Court who will be the final arbiters of his fate. He faces sanctions that range anywhere from another slap on the wrist to a definite-to-indefinite suspension from the practice of law to permanent disbarment. Any of the sanctions would remove him from the bench.
Because of his age, when his current term is up at the end of 2023, he is prevented from running again due to mandatory retirement imposed on judges by Ohio law. He could attempt to stretch out the proceedings and gamble that by the time the case is heard his term of office will already have expired.
The problem with that gamble is that, unlike the Cleveland Municipal Court Judges who get a blank check from the City of Cleveland for their defense (See The Cost of JudicialMisconduct, CoolCleveland, Jan. 2022), Common Pleas Court judges get $10,000 from an insurance policy provided by the Supreme Court. The balance of their legal fees are on their dime unless they are completely exonerated.
Judge Gaul would be wise to review the case of Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Deborah O’Neill who, in the early 2000s, fought allegations of wrongdoing. She rolled the dice and lost her law license and was ordered to pay $578,000 in legal fees incurred for her defense.
Somewhere along the line, Gaul developed the attitude that the rules that govern the conduct of other judges do not apply to him. He apparently thinks he can talk down to Black defendants with no repercussions, ignoring or forgetting that what he says and does is being recorded and Cuyahoga County is not Mississippi in the 1920s.
Perhaps Judge Gaul will remain defiant as he did in 2010, believing as he did then that he did nothing wrong. Perhaps he will continue to feel that he has the law and the facts on his side. But he has a lot at stake. It may be the better part of valor, and in the best interest of his wallet and the preservation of his law license, for the judge to take his pension and retire to some friendly golf course where he can call the caddies and kitchen help “brother” and live on the memory of his glory days on the bench.
The current makeup of the Ohio Supreme Court seems bent on making examples of judges who engage in serious misconduct and scandalous misbehavior. Ottawa County Judge Bruce Winters was suspended in 2021 for improper communications with a defendant on Facebook. In that same year, Tiffin-Fostoria Municipal Court Judge Mark Repp was suspended for one year for forcing a non-disruptive woman who happened to be sitting in his courtroom to have a drug test.
Judge Gaul got a pass on his first go round in 2010. He is unlikely to be that lucky this time around. In a worst-case scenario, he could end up as a footnote in Cuyahoga County judicial history as the judge who served 30-plus years only to be unceremoniously ushered from office leaving only a scarlet letter tattooed on his family’s illustrious name. The dice are in your hands, brother.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and past president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
2 Responses to “COMMENTARY: Judge Daniel Gaul Faces New Charges by C. Ellen Connally”
Mel Maurer
It’s good that this kind of attention is being called on errant judges, some who think they are above the law they took an oath to enforce. Aldo good that Judge Connally with her great record on the bench is doing the calling.
Peter Lawson Jones
Judge Connally, your final sentence alone . . . priceless.