SANDUSKY — Ashli Ford’s defense counsel got his hat handed to him by Ohio Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, in a ruling filed today dismissing his efforts to disqualify all three Erie County Common Pleas judges from presiding over Ford’s 2025 intimidation case.
Chief Justice Kennedy dismantled Pattakos’s filing by emphasizing the “plain and unambiguous language of the statute,” effectively pointing out that Pattakos filed affidavits against judges who weren’t even assigned to the intimidation case.
“[T]he chief justice cannot rule on an affidavit of disqualification when... nothing is pending before the... court,” Kennedy wrote in the filing; dismissed across the board. The Chief Justice ruled that Pattakos failed to establish the most basic legal prerequisite—an active proceeding before Judges Tone and Binette—resulting in a complete dismissal.
