After a six-month disciplinary suspension, Geauga County Probate-Juvenile Judge Timothy J. Grendell is back on the bench in Chardon, resuming a job that sparked statewide controversy over his handling of a high-profile family case. His return allows him to finish out the remainder of his term, even as the fallout from that discipline keeps rippling through Geauga County politics and the courts.
What the Ohio Supreme Court ordered
The Ohio Supreme Court ordered Grendell suspended for 18 months in November 2025, with 12 months stayed, and removed him from the bench without pay. After he served the active six-month portion, his law license was reinstated, and he was cleared to return to judicial duty, according to court records and local reporting.
In a slip opinion written by Justice Patrick DeWine, the high court concluded that Grendell’s conduct in the Glasier juvenile case showed a willful disregard for legal safeguards and a failure to stay impartial, as detailed in the decision published on Justia and in coverage by Cleveland.com.
The Glasier case at the center
The discipline traces back to Grendell’s May 2020 order involving brothers Conner and Carson Glasier, then about 13 and 15 years old. When the teens refused a court-ordered visit with their father, Grendell ordered them to the Portage-Geauga juvenile detention center.
News 5 Cleveland reported that the Ohio Supreme Court later found no legal basis for locking up the teens and criticized the conditions of their confinement, including a prohibition on calls to their mother while they were held. One of the brothers was later killed in a traffic accident, a tragedy that looms large in local coverage and in the disciplinary record.
Community reaction and interim coverage
The boys’ mother, Stacy Hartman, has said publicly that the family was deeply damaged by Grendell’s actions and that the sanction did not go far enough. Local reporting captured her frustration and the long wait she experienced before the state imposed discipline.
Disciplinary attorneys accused Grendell of abusing his authority and used unusually sharp language in filings, labeling him a “quintessential bully,” according to regional outlets that followed the case. While he was sidelined, the Ohio Supreme Court brought in retired Portage County Judge Robert Berger to manage Grendell’s docket, a temporary assignment that kept the probate-juvenile court functioning during the suspension.
Fight over legal fees and county finances
Even as he faced discipline, Grendell asked Geauga County commissioners to pay roughly $300,000 in legal fees tied to his defense in the ethics case. Commissioners refused, and Grendell responded by suing the board in an effort to force the county to pick up the tab.
County filings and local coverage show that commissioners argue Grendell hired his own lawyers and accumulated most of the fees before ever seeking reimbursement, and they have asked a court to toss his petition while the disciplinary process runs its course. The dispute has generated a steady stream of motions and briefs in the county courts alongside the now-completed state ethics case.
What’s next
Grendell’s current term runs through February 9, 2027, and he is expected to serve it out back on the bench in Chardon. Under the Ohio Constitution, anyone who will have turned 70 before taking office cannot be elected or appointed as a judge. Public records list Grendell’s birthdate as April 17, 1953, which means he is not eligible to seek another term under that age restriction.
In the meantime, the lawsuit over who pays his legal bills is still active, ensuring that even with Grendell back in his robe, the larger fight over his conduct and its costs is far from over in Geauga County.
