Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg finds herself in familiar territory – fresh off an election defeat from an inexperienced challenger, with the possibility of an appointment looming.
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg finds herself in familiar territory this December and January.
Synenberg, in an interview in her chambers she was reluctant to give, declined to comment on her candidacy for the appointment. In 2012, then-civil attorney Cassandra Collier-Williams challenged Synenberg and won. Three months later, then-Gov. John Kasich sent Synenberg back to the bench, appointing her to replace Judge Eileen T. Gallagher who was elected to the Ohio 8th District Court of Appeals.
As a municipal court judge, she oversaw the drunken driving trial of then-Cleveland City Councilman Zack Reed. She spared the life of Douglas Shine, who was 18 years old when he walked into a Warrensville Heights barbershop in 2015 and murdered three people, then conspired to kill a witness who watched him run away from the store.
Mason’s office argued that it had discovered a court document that showed Synenberg had helped defend one of the other men charged in the case when he went to a second trial in 1994 and was again sentenced to death. Synenberg vehemently denied it -- she was not certified to handle death penalty cases at that time and another attorney said she was not involved in the case at all. The court battle splashed Synenberg’s name in news headlines for several weeks, and it delayed D’Ambrosio’s retrial.
“You can make decisions here that the impact is not just on the person in front of you, but on kids, families,” she said. “Respect what our position is, and don’t use it lightly.”Synenberg looked back most fondly on her time overseeing Recovery Court, a specialized docket the court created in 2015 for people charged with crimes who have drug addiction and trauma-related mental health diagnoses.
“How do you recover from addiction, which is often self-medicating your own trauma, if you’re being re-traumatized at the same time?” Synenberg asked.
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