The Supreme Court of Ohio has handed down a suspension to former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Celebrezze, according to a recent posting on the Court News Ohio website. The two-year suspension, which includes a stay of one year, follows Celebrezze's admitted violations of procedural and ethical standards in assigning cases to herself and recommending roles for her long-time friend and love interest, Mark Dottore.
Celebrezze, who resigned on Dec. 22, 2025, was found to have bypassed the mandatory random assignment of judges to cases, a process designed to uphold the integrity of the judicial system. As reported by Court News Ohio, Celebrezze's actions went against the purpose of the Rules of Superintendence, which are in place "to maintain public confidence in the judicial system by ensuring that cases are assigned impartially and not deliberately to a certain judge."
Her resignation came in the wake of a disciplinary counsel investigation that brought to light her ethical violations, including cases where she assigned herself to proceedings and where she influenced the appointment of Dottore as a receiver or mediator. Court News Ohio outlines the financial implications of these assignments, revealing over $413,000 in authorized payments to Dottore and his legal counsel.
The investigation was spurred by Jason Jardine, one of the parties in a divorce case who hired a private investigator to tail Celebrezze. The subsequent investigation discovered repeated personal interactions between Celebrezze and Dottore, including instances where they were observed exchanging a kiss, "after the two had spent more than two hours inside a restaurant," according to the Court News Ohio report.
Amidst the fallout, the Ohio Supreme Court weighed Celebrezze's misconduct against past judicial precedents and doled out a harsher sentence than previously proposed sanctions. Court News Ohio quotes Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy stating, "Celebrezze’s conflicts of interest, combined with a lack of respect for the importance of the Superintendence Rules and local court rules requiring random case assignment, necessitated a greater sanction than proposed by the parties." Kennedy's ruling was joined by Justices Patrick F. Fischer, Joseph T. Deters, Daniel R. Hawkins, and Megan E. Shanahan, with Justices R. Patrick DeWine and Jennifer Brunner abstaining from the case.
Celebrezze will also be responsible for the cost of her disciplinary proceedings, and the second year of her suspension hangs in the balance of her avoiding further misconduct. Chief Justice Kennedy's stance, as articulated in the Court News Ohio article, reflects the gravity of her violations and the Court's efforts to "help repair" the damage inflicted on the public perception of the legal system.
