COMMENTARY by C. Ellen Connally 

In a surprise move this week, South Euclid Municipal Court Judge Gayle Williams-Byers announced that she was stepping down. Her statement said that she would resign/retire effective July 31, 2022. Retired Judge Harry Field was on the bench this past Monday, having filled in for Williams-Byers last year when she was on leave from October 1 to December 31, 2021 for undisclosed reasons. She was first elected in 2011 and she was the first Black woman on that court. 

Rumors abound that Williams-Byers told her staff that she was departing to play “Judge Judy/Steve Harvey” in a new A&E TV judge series. But she has made no public announcement regarding impending switch from the real bench to a TV bench. And no media outlet has confirmed the story. 

An Internet search reveals that Williams-Byers is listed as a speaker for the Justice Speakers Institute which touts itself as a promoter of justice worldwide. Through speaking, teaching, and training their aim is to train judges, prosecutors, defense counsel and court personnel. Williams-Byers is listed as having a podcast on systematic racism in the courts produced by WOUB Public Media at Ohio University. She lists as her credentials a B.S., M.N.O and JD degrees from Case Western Reserve. Even with an Internet search I was unable to determine what a M.N.O degree is. 

Other than court employees who are likely concerned about job security, not many people in the legal community will lose any sleep over the exit of Williams-Byers. Even current employees may feel some relief since there was high turnover during the Williams-Byers administration. 

As Cleveland.com reported, the judge was in constant loggerheads with the City of South Euclid over her handling of the court’s business. She likely set a statewide record for the number of people — including the mayor, police chief,  police officers and lawyers — that she has held in contempt. Mayor Georgine Welo and the city council began questioning Byer’s use of public dollars to travel to conferences in 2014 — including international travel. There were also allegations that she failed to reconcile the court’s budget. 

On two separate occasions the City Council of South Euclid has passed resolutions asking state law makers and the Ohio Supreme Court to merge this court with one of the neighboring courts. This would save the city a great deal of money and free up funds for other city services. For many years, up until the late 1990s, the South Euclid Judgeship had been a part-time job. 

The story that made the rounds in legal circles during the pandemic was that the court’s clerk office was frequently closed. Citizens wanting to pay fines, get court dates or attempt to clear their records so that they could get driving privileges would wander over to the police station asking for help. This happened so frequently that the South Euclid Police Department started passing out cards instructing citizens that they were the police department and had no control over the court. If citizens had a problem, they should contact the Supreme Court. 

The cards set Williams-Byers off. She ultimately held the police chief in contempt. That resulted in litigation, just one of the many lawsuits that the judge and the city were engaged in over her years on the bench. The impact of all these lawsuits is that a lot of lawyers made a lot of money, all at taxpayers’ expense. In a 2019 editorial, the Plain Dealer stated that Williams-Byers authorized $34,000 for lawyers to represent her, at a time when the city had to lay off police officers. 

As a Cleveland Municipal Court judge, I worked with Williams-Byers. She was the county prosecutor assigned to the preliminary hearing room. She was not  “user friendly” — often snarky and rude to me, lawyers, witnesses and court employees. But I never held her in contempt. 

Several years ago, I went to her court, representing a relative of a friend, solely for the purpose of getting a bond set. In an afternoon trip to the court, the clerk told me to return at 7pm when the judge was having night court. I arrived at the appointed hour to join several lawyers sitting  in the back of the courtroom. They vehemently complained that they had been there for hours and were just pleading to get out and go home. The court dragged on for an hour or so and eventually a magistrate heard my case, and I was able to leave — I think it was around 9pm — maybe later. 

Williams-Byers frequently plays the race card when she is the subject of criticism. Using a play on the Tina Turner classic — What’s Race Got to Do with It — nothing.   

There are many advantages to the idea of merging the South Euclid Court with the Lyndhurst or Euclid court. With the seat now vacant, perhaps the legislature and the Supreme Court can move on this idea and do a service to the taxpayers of South Euclid and the public. 

Maybe Judge Gayle Williams-Byers can move on to another career to which she may be more well suited. Judging was not her strong suit. 

 

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.

Post categories:

• Commentary
• C. Ellen Connally
• college