Ohio Supreme Court hears disciplinary case of lawyer accused of lying to Lorain County judge

The Ohio Supreme Court is considering whether to suspend a Lorain County attorney for allegedly lying to a Common Pleas Court judge and engaging in improper conduct in her courtroom more than two years ago. During oral arguments before the court in Columbus on May 20, attorney Anthony Baker of Sheffield told justices he hoped for "no sanction at all," but that if they decided on a sanction, he hoped it wouldn't include a law license suspension. "It was an unfortunate incident," he said. "It should have been handled differently." Attorney Margaret O'Bryon, representing the Lorain County Bar Association, said the state's highest court "has held, attorneys who lie to courts, have a 'time out.'" That's "'unless there is an abundance of mitigating evidence that could justify a lesser sanction,'" which there isn't in this case, O'Bryon told the justices, quoting a past decision. Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy told the parties the court would issue its ruling at a later date. Baker was accused of lying to Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Melissa Kobasher and "engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" while representing client Willis Hamiltion in her courtroom two years ago. An Ohio Board of Professional Conduct panel recommended in a 2-1 vote in February that the Ohio Supreme Court suspend Baker's law license for six months and order him to pay $2,190 in costs. Baker appealed. Baker told justices that the disciplinary panel's finding was "a determination that was based on incomplete facts and evidence." Hamilton left Kobasher's courtroom on April 26, 2024, without signing a form. Baker was summoned back to court via text message, took the form into an empty conference room and printed Hamilton's name on it. He then submitted it and left without telling anyone he had signed on Hamilton's behalf, according to the disciplinary board. That was wrong, as "the text message was very clear that Mr. Hamilton was to come back and sign the pretrial form," O'Bryon told justices. Hamilton later told Kobasher it was his name on the form, but that he didn't sign it. Kobasher didn't ask Baker about it at that time, and Hamilton didn't testify in the disciplinary case. Two disciplinary board members found Baker's testimony "inconsistent and not credible," O'Bryon noted, but Baker maintained he had permission to sign the form. "Again, as I maintained throughout, I misrepresented when I received the authority, but I actually received the authority," he told the court. "If those elements aren't met, if those conclusions aren't found, there is no issue here, there is no rule violation." Baker also said the burden of proof was placed on him when it should have been on the judge, that circumstantial evidence was unfairly applied, that he had previously signed documents for his client and that his credibility was wrongly questioned by the disciplinary board. The lone dissenting board member looked at the matter as if it were being charged as a crime, which O'Bryon said it wasn't. "This was not a criminal case, this was a rule of professional conduct," O'Bryon said. "It's clear he did lie to the court three separate times, he misrepresented his client's signature on the line." The Ohio Supreme Court publicly reprimanded Baker in 2021 for his behavior at a trial in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court the year before, but Baker said that shouldn't be held against him. He said he was zealously representing a client when he walked away from the trial table following a disagreement with Judge Nancy Fuerst over a self-defense claim, accepted responsibility for his actions, then won his client's case on appeal. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.