This is The Marshall Project - Cleveland’s newsletter, a monthly digest of criminal justice news from around Ohio gathered by our staff of local journalists. Want this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for future newsletters.
People died. Cameras blinked. And the county’s explanation fell apart.
In her notes, a state inspector blasted a Cuyahoga County jail corrections officer for slow-walking a 2024 medical emergency.
Footage from two ceiling-mounted cameras oddly froze when an officer opened Michael Papp’s locked cell door. There’s no way of telling whether the officer went inside, how long it took him to call a nurse or whether anyone meaningfully checked on Papp in the hours that he was likely dead or dying on the floor of his one-man cell.
Then we got footage of Nathan Kinney, who died in 2025 after being denied medical services, according to state inspectors. The feed showed eerily similar glitches. Kinney is dribbling a basketball in the gym, then lying on the floor, then (for a millisecond) up again and down again as a corrections officer suddenly appears beside him.
Last year we asked about these issues. County Executive Chris Ronayne’s office told us that the cameras are motion-activated, and there just wasn’t enough motion to trigger a recording. Nothing to see. Move along.
Then we received footage from a third death. In it, corrections officers who reported making regular rounds seemingly teleported past Jennifer Wade’s cell in the mental health pod. Wade was already cold to the touch when the officers finally summoned a nurse. Staff waited at least 15 minutes to begin CPR after failing to find a pulse.
Footage from the three incidents appeared to freeze at the most critical moments. The motion-detection argument could not account for why the footage resumed with people moving in the same places where cameras had previously failed to record them.
We asked around and obtained emails stemming from a 2021 internal affairs investigation. The sheriff’s investigators needed to understand a similar glitch before a prosecutor could charge a corrections officer for applying a chokehold on an incarcerated person. The problem, they discovered the next year, was that over 100 old Sony cameras were no longer compatible with the county’s video storage system.
The county said all the old cameras were finally replaced in April of this year — four years and 17 deaths after the sheriff’s department uncovered the underlying issue.
We have asked for more footage to confirm that the problem has been fixed.
– Doug Livingston
Celebrezze sentence of 60 days in jail shocks elected officials
It is rare for a former judge to receive a jail sentence for a crime committed on the bench.
But that happened June 1, when 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.
That punishment comes after more than three years of reporting by The Marshall Project - Cleveland. We investigated Celebrezze and Mark Dottore, a longtime family friend whom she repeatedly appointed to oversee lucrative divorce cases.
We learned about Celebrezze in the spring of 2023 and spent weeks quietly gathering public records and talking to courthouse insiders who knew about the relationship with Dottore. It tooks months to pry public records away from administrators because Celebrezze, the administrative judge at the time, oversaw the employees.
We persisted and kept showing up at the Old Courthouse on Lakeside Avenue to let the administrators know we would not be deterred.
By sifting through dozens of file boxes in the courthouse basement, we learned that Celebrezze approved nearly $500,000 in fees to be paid to a company, Dottore Cos. LLC, between January 2017 and June 2023. After we began publishing our stories, whispers about the FBI asking questions quickly surfaced.
We continued to produce more stories amid intense scrutiny from Celebrezze and her supporters. When Cuyahoga County prosecutors and FBI agents confronted Celebrezze about falsifying records to steer work to Dottore, she resigned in December.
Celebrezze’s sentence shocked many sitting judges and elected officials who told us they expected her to receive probation.
But Judge Mark Wiest from Wayne County handed down the punishment and told Celebrezze her actions could harm Ohio’s judicial system. Judges in Cuyahoga County recused themselves from the case.
“What makes it more serious is you held public office,” Wiest said. “That helped you facilitate the crime.”
– Mark Puente
Juneteenth and the crucial role of journalism
As we approach June 19, I have found myself thinking about the importance of journalism and the role it plays in a free society.
Juneteenth is often remembered as the day freedom reached enslaved people in Texas. But when you look closer, it is also a story about information, access and accountability.
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but its enforcement depended on Union military control. Information about emancipation traveled through newspapers, conversations, churches and word of mouth.
It was not until June 1865 that Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, as commander of the District of Texas, to restore federal authority and enforce federal law. More than two years passed between the Emancipation Proclamation and the federal government’s ability to fully enforce it in Texas.
As I reflect on that history, I can’t help but think about many of my peers who are incarcerated today and who often live in information deserts, with limited access to news, educational opportunities and resources that directly impact their lives and futures.
That is one of the reasons The Marshall Project created News Inside, our free print publication distributed in correctional facilities. Access to accurate information matters.
As you attend Juneteenth events this month, take time to reflect on the importance of information, journalism and the institutions that work every day to inform the public and hold power accountable.
– Louis Fields
Richmond Heights Juneteenth Celebration
Richmond Heights will host a Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday, June 13, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Greenwood Farm Community Park.
This year’s theme, “Honoring HBCUs and the Divine 9,” will feature live entertainment, food trucks, local vendors, community organizations and family activities.
Admission is free and open to the public.