Celebrezze: Conviction, Sentence, and Ohio Supreme Court Discipline

Judge Leslie Celebrezze, the former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court judge, was sentenced on June 1, 2026, to 60 days in jail and a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to a third-degree felony charge of tampering with records. Over roughly six years on the bench, she manipulated case assignments to route lucrative court-appointed receiver work to a longtime friend, Mark Dottore, whose company collected nearly $500,000 in fees between January 2017 and June 2023.¹²

What She Was Convicted of Doing

Celebrezze was elected to the Domestic Relations Court in 2009, succeeding her father James Celebrezze on the bench, and eventually rose to administrative judge, a role that gave her authority over how cases moved through the court.¹ She used that authority to bypass the court’s random case-assignment system. She would pull cases from colleagues’ dockets and then sign journal entries falsely stating the cases had been randomly reassigned to her through the court’s electronic system. Once the cases were on her docket, she could appoint Mark Dottore as receiver and approve his fees without outside scrutiny.³

Receivers in divorce cases take control of marital assets on the court’s behalf: real estate, businesses, cash, and equipment. Dottore and his daughter Camille, working through Dottore Cos. LLC, were the recipients of that work. Dottore was also personally close to Celebrezze. He had served as her 2008 campaign treasurer, and her campaign headquarters shared his business address.⁴

Warning signs about the relationship went back to the start of her tenure. In 2009, the Ohio Supreme Court removed her from a divorce case involving developer Marc Strauss, with then-Chief Justice Thomas Moyer citing the potential for bias given Dottore’s dual role as friend and campaign treasurer. Records from that episode also showed that Celebrezze’s father, James, had appointed Dottore to 11 cases during his last six months on the bench in 2008, generating $340,000 in fees while no other receivers got work. Celebrezze then withdrew from 88 cases carried over from her father’s docket.⁴

How the Scheme Came to Light

The case that broke the pattern open belonged to a Strongsville businessman, Jason Jardine. In July 2021, Judge Tonya Jones appointed Dottore as receiver in Jardine’s divorce after Celebrezze told Jones he would be an “appropriate choice.” When Jones later recused herself, the case should have been randomly reassigned. Celebrezze pressured Jones to transfer it directly to her docket instead.⁵ She expanded Dottore’s authority in August 2022, and by the time she was removed from the case she had authorized more than $241,000 in receiver fees to Dottore and nearly $172,000 to his legal counsel, over $413,000 in total.⁶

Suspicious, Jardine hired a private investigator in March 2023. Over several weeks, the investigator observed Celebrezze visiting Dottore’s office and home during business hours and documented the two socializing, including photographing them kissing outside a steakhouse.⁵ Jardine filed an affidavit of disqualification with the Ohio Supreme Court, and Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy removed Celebrezze from the case in August 2023. His grievance triggered the disciplinary investigation.⁶

In parallel, reporter Mark Puente of The Marshall Project – Cleveland, partnering with Cleveland Scene, published a June 1, 2023, investigation detailing the relationship, the fee flow, and the eight active divorce cases in which Dottore and his daughter were listed as receivers before Celebrezze. Later reporting exposed the case-assignment manipulation and revealed the existence of an FBI grand jury investigation. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct later acknowledged the conduct would likely have remained undetected without that scrutiny.⁴⁷

A whistleblower inside chambers played a critical role. Georgeanna Semary, Celebrezze’s judicial assistant since 2008, fulfilled a public records request from Puente in April 2023, providing billing invoices tied to Dottore’s receiver work. The same day, court administrator James Zak accused her of violating ethical rules and reassigned her to a lower-level scheduling job at a salary cut of nearly $20,000. She resigned two months later, alleging ongoing intimidation.⁸

The Criminal Case and Sentence

On December 21, 2025, prosecutors charged Celebrezze by information with a single count of tampering with records, a third-degree felony, for creating a false court entry that assigned a divorce case to herself. She resigned from the bench the next day, ending a 16-year judicial career.⁹ She entered a guilty plea on February 4, 2026, before Visiting Judge Mark Wiest, a retired Wayne County Common Pleas judge assigned to the case.³

Prosecutors had not requested jail time. Judge Wiest imposed 60 days anyway, along with a $10,000 fine and court costs, telling Celebrezze that holding public office made the crime more serious because it “helped you facilitate the crime” and that her actions harmed the reputation of the Ohio judiciary.¹⁰ Defense attorney Ian Friedman had argued for probation, noting that Celebrezze accepted responsibility, had already lost her judicial career, and had placed herself under voluntary electronic monitoring since early February 2026 at a personal cost exceeding $40,000. Friedman said she might seek to return to healthcare, as she is a registered nurse, and noted that she deliberately chose not to have supporters present in the courtroom.¹¹ After the sentence was read, sheriff’s deputies led her to a side room to begin serving her time.

Ohio Supreme Court Discipline

A separate ethics track ran alongside the criminal case. Before the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct, Celebrezze stipulated to 15 violations of judicial and professional conduct rules across four counts, including failures to disqualify herself, making a false statement in the disciplinary matter, dishonesty, and conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.⁵

On January 13, 2026, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended her from the practice of law for two years, with one year stayed on the condition that she commit no further misconduct. The sanction was stricter than the one-year suspension recommended by the Disciplinary Counsel’s office. Chief Justice Sharon L. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Celebrezze’s actions caused “incalculable harm to the public perception of the legal system.”⁶ Following the felony conviction, she is expected to lose her law license entirely.¹

The FBI Investigation and Mark Dottore

A federal grand jury subpoena dated February 12, 2025, sought thousands of pages of records from the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court concerning Dottore Companies, LLC, including contracts, billing information, fee approvals, and correspondence. FBI agents were also reported to be interviewing people at the courthouse, and Semary was interviewed by the FBI at least twice.¹²⁸

Dottore has not been formally charged. He has called the federal investigation a “witch hunt,” telling reporters, “Nothing in there is true. I never took anything from her.”¹² The grand jury investigation was reported as ongoing as of March 2025.¹³

Fallout at the Court

Semary’s civil rights lawsuit alleging retaliation and witness intimidation was initially dismissed by a visiting judge, then reinstated by a unanimous appellate panel. In December 2025, the Cuyahoga County Council unanimously approved a $400,000 settlement, on top of $250,000 in taxpayer-funded legal fees the county had already spent defending the case.¹⁴

The Ohio Supreme Court assigned retired Lorain County judge Debra Boros to handle the vacant docket beginning January 5, 2026.¹⁵ On April 17, 2026, Governor Mike DeWine appointed Pamela Hawkins as the permanent replacement. The court also published proposed rule changes for public comment, including amendments to rules governing the administrative judge’s role and unavailability, court reporters, and a new rule on reporting to law enforcement and compliance planning.¹⁶

The Family Name Behind the Case

Celebrezze’s conviction drew heightened attention in Ohio because of the name she carried. Her uncle Anthony J. Celebrezze Sr. was mayor of Cleveland from 1953 to 1962, then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and later a federal appellate judge on the Sixth Circuit.¹⁷¹⁸ Her uncle Frank D. Celebrezze served 14 years on the Ohio Supreme Court, eight of them as Chief Justice. Her father James served on the Ohio Supreme Court, the Eighth District Court of Appeals, and the same Domestic Relations Court seat she later held.¹⁹ Leslie Ann Celebrezze, born in 1971, was the first woman in the family to win elected office.²⁰

1
The Marshall Project. Celebrezze Sentenced Cuyahoga County
2
Signal Cleveland. Cuyahoga Judge Celebrezze Resigns After Being Charged With Records Tampering
3
The Marshall Project. Celebrezze Guilty Cuyahoga County
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The Marshall Project. A Judge, a Kiss, and Court Work
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Supreme Court of Ohio. Disciplinary Counsel v. Celebrezze, 2026-Ohio-45
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Court News Ohio. Disciplinary Counsel v. Celebrezze
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The Marshall Project. Judge Celebrezze Misconduct Dottore
8
Cleveland.com. Cuyahoga County Council Approves $400,000 Payment to Settle Retaliation Suit
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Cleveland 19 News. Sentencing Former Cuyahoga County Judge Guilty of Tampering With Records
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Ideastream Public Media. Former Judge Leslie Celebrezze Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail for Falsifying Records
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Cleveland.com. Ex-Judge Leslie Celebrezze Sentenced to 60 Days in Jail for Records Tampering
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The Marshall Project. Celebrezze FBI Subpoena Cuyahoga County
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The Land. Judge Celebrezze Now Admits to Allegations of Case Steering in Lucrative Divorce Cases
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The Marshall Project. Celebrezze Lawsuit Semary Cuyahoga County
15
Cleveland 19 News. Retired Lorain County Judge Temporarily Assigned to Celebrezze’s Docket
16
Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court. News and Notes
17
Case Western Reserve University Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. Mayoral Administration of Anthony J. Celebrezze
18
Miller Center, University of Virginia. Anthony Celebrezze, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
19
Court News Ohio. James Celebrezze Obituary
20
Western Reserve Historical Society. Italian American Women in Northeast Ohio