A short excerpt from Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy's long opinion in In re Disqualification of Wollscheid, decided Oct. 31, 2024, but just posted on Westlaw last week:
Cody Henderson, the defendant in the underlying criminal case, has filed an affidavit of disqualification pursuant to [Ohio state law] seeking to disqualify Judge Susan R. Wollscheid of the Washington Court House Municipal Court from presiding over the case….
On June 17, 2024, Henderson was arrested for menacing, a violation of R.C. 2903.22(A)(1)(a). The alleged victim of the offense was a sheriff's deputy, Lieutenant John M. Warnecke….
Judge Wollscheid's actions interfering with Henderson's rights to self-representation and to a speedy trial [details in the opinion -EV], while appearing to be improper, do not by themselves provide a basis to disqualify her from the underlying case. But although it is well established that adverse rulings do not on their own require the disqualification of a judge, "it has also been recognized that 'a judge could be disqualified if his or her adverse rulings were accompanied by words or conduct that call into question the manner in which the proceedings are being conducted.'" And this case is not just about Judge Wollscheid's treatment of Henderson's constitutional rights. An additional issue is the judge's denial of media access to the underlying proceeding.
After Henderson's arraignment, Caden Reed and Ethan Womack, both representing Omniversal Media L.L.C., submitted media-access requests {for "[a]udio/video recording outside," to "[a]udio/video record," and to "[p]hotograph the courtroom"} pursuant to Sup.R. 12. Henderson claims that Judge Wollscheid's denial of those requests without first holding a hearing is proof of the judge's bias and prejudice against him and creates the appearance of impropriety requiring the judge's disqualification from the underlying criminal case.
