Nearly six months after resigning in disgrace, former Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze was sentenced to 60 days in jail and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for falsifying records to steer work to a friend.
Celebrezze, who spent 16 years on the bench, stood motionless as Visiting Judge Mark Wiest from Wayne County handed down the punishment.
Wiest admonished Celebrezze for harming the hundreds of judges and public officials who do their best to serve with honor each day. Celebrezze’s actions lowered the public’s trust at a time when many have disdain for politicians, he said.
“What makes it more serious is you held public office,” Wiest said. “That helped you facilitate the crime.”
Celebrezze faced a potential prison sentence of up to three years for the third-degree felony charge of tampering with records for steering work to Mark Dottore, a longtime family friend whom she’d repeatedly appointed to oversee lucrative divorce cases.
Her sentence comes exactly three years after The Marshall Project - Cleveland first detailed her relationship with Dottore.
Moments before she was sentenced, Celebrezze choked up when trying to read a short, prepared statement.
“I am genuinely sorry,” Celebrezze said as she accepted responsibility.
She said she did not want any relatives or supporters in the courtroom because she wanted to stand by herself to face punishment.
Her attorney, Ian Friedman, told Wiest that Celebrezze has been serving a self-imposed house arrest, subjecting herself to electronic monitoring, since early February, at a cost to herself of more than $40,000.
Friendman also read a lengthy statement about Celebrezze serving the public for decades as a nurse, magistrate and judge. Friedman asked that she not be judged by this improper action.
“She has left a legacy of good,” Friedman said. “She gave years of energy and commitment to Cuyahoga County.”
Friedman urged Wiest to consider that Celebrezze accepted responsibility and resigned her judicial seat in order to not drag out the case and further burden taxpayers. He said Celebrezze hopes to return to being a registered nurse someday.
Friedman sought probation as punishment. Wiest acknowledged steps Celebrezze took but stressed he could not overlook the harm she caused to the Ohio judiciary system.
Across multiple generations, the Celebrezze family built an enduring political dynasty that has wielded power and influence from Cleveland to Washington, D.C.
During disciplinary hearings before the Ohio Supreme Court, Celebrezze admitted to 15 violations of professional and judicial conduct rules. The court suspended her in January from the practice of law for two years, with one year stayed. She is now expected to lose her law license after being convicted.
In some complex divorce cases, judges appoint receivers to act as neutral parties to control a couple’s marital assets, including real estate, cash, equipment, deposit accounts and businesses. The receivers are paid by the divorcing couples.
In 2023, The Marshall Project - Cleveland reported that Celebrezze, the administrative judge at the time, directed case assignments to herself to help steer more work to Dottore — but stated in court entries that the cases had been randomly assigned to her.
She approved nearly $500,000 in fees to be paid to a company, Dottore Cos. LLC, between January 2017 and June 2023, The Marshall Project - Cleveland reported. The judge appointed either Dottore or his daughter to be the receiver in six cases she handled during that time, according to Cuyahoga County court records.
At the start of The Marshall Project - Cleveland’s investigation, while Celebrezze was still the administrative judge, the staffers she oversaw took months to release public records and often weeks to respond to numerous calls and staffers.
After Celebrezze resigned, two court staffers said they had to follow orders to delay releasing records because Celebrezze simply called the multiple requests an “unfair attack against the judge that would go away.”
Since the 1920s, Celebrezze family members have occupied an extraordinary sweep of public offices, from Cleveland mayor and state attorney general to the state Supreme Court, appellate courts and county benches.
In 2009, Leslie Celebrezze became the first female member of her family to run and the first to win an election when voters tapped her to replace her father as a Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court judge.
In 2023, Celebrezze scoffed at the idea that she had done anything improper while steering work to Dottore. After a private investigator filmed Celebrezze kissing Dottore outside a steakhouse, both denied a romantic relationship.
“I’m Italian,” Celebrezze said in an emailed statement to The Marshall Project - Cleveland, “and I frequently kiss my family and friends on the lips when I greet them or say goodbye.”
