A three-member panel of the Ohio Supreme Court's Board of Professional Conduct has dismissed a formal ethics complaint against Susan Luken, a Hamilton County probate court magistrate running for juvenile court judge, after finding she simply made a mistake when she said in a radio interview that she had previously served as a judge.
Luken is challenging incumbent Administrative Judge Kari Bloom for a seat on the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court's Juvenile Division in the November 3 general election, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, which first reported the panel's decision. Bloom, a Democrat, has held the administrative judge post since 2021, per Cincinnati CityBeat. The panel concluded that Luken simply made a mistake and misspoke when she told a radio interviewer she previously had been a judge, a role she has not actually held.
How the Panel Reached Its Decision
The dismissal reflects the narrow standard Ohio applies to judicial campaign speech under Canon 4 of the state's Code of Judicial Conduct. A 2014 Ohio Supreme Court ruling struck down provisions that had banned true statements simply because they might mislead a reasonable person, according to Court News Ohio's account of the rule change. That precedent leaves little room for sanctioning candidates unless there's evidence of knowing falsity rather than an honest slip of the tongue.
Formal grievances against Ohio judicial candidates go first to three-member hearing panels of the Board of Professional Conduct, which have the authority to dismiss complaints outright without sending them to the full 28-member board or the state supreme court, as The Vindicator has detailed in its coverage of similar cases. That's the process Luken's complaint went through before being closed out.
Why Candidate Statements Carry Extra Weight
Ohio judicial candidates appear on general election ballots without party labels next to their names, a nonpartisan format that pushes voters toward interviews and campaign materials to size up who's running, according to a post from Anderson Republican Voices on Facebook. That structure helps explain why an offhand comment during a radio interview became the basis of a formal grievance in the first place.
The seat Luken and Bloom are competing for oversees Hamilton County's juvenile docket, probation offices, and court administration out of 800 Broadway in downtown Cincinnati, a building Hoodline has previously covered after a traffic-snarling incident. Pre-adjudicated juveniles facing felony charges who need detention are held separately at the Hamilton County Juvenile Court Youth Center on Auburn Avenue. Bloom currently serves as administrative judge alongside Judge Stacey DeGraffenreid, sharing responsibility for court policy and operational assignments, according to a Hamilton County Judges Facebook post.
A County With a History of Judicial Scrutiny
The complaint against Luken landed amid a broader stretch of conduct scrutiny across Hamilton County's courts. A separate misconduct complaint was filed against Probate Judge Ralph Winkler over public Facebook posts he made regarding an active guardianship case, according to the Greater Cincinnati Politics Facebook page — notable given that Luken currently serves as a magistrate in that same probate court.
Hamilton County's juvenile bench has faced disciplinary controversy before. The 2010 election of Tracie Hunter to the juvenile court eventually led to her removal from office following high-profile state disciplinary and criminal proceedings, a history that colors how seriously local ethics complaints tend to be taken even when they end in dismissal.
Dismissals like the one Luken received aren't unprecedented in Ohio. In April, the state supreme court dismissed a Board of Professional Conduct complaint against a Clinton County judge over online campaign posts, ruling on First Amendment grounds, as Hoodline reported at the time. That case, like Luken's, turned on distinguishing intentional deception from an unintentional misstatement in the heat of a campaign.
