FOR IMMEDIATE

RELEASE
Special
prosecutors rest
weak case against
Judge Tracie
Hunter
Cincinnati, OHSeptember 26,
2014After two and
a half weeks of
testimony by only a
few witnesses, the
prosecution has
rested its case in the trial of Judge Tracie M. Hunter. The trial has had
the grandeur of a murder trial and a plot akin to a poorly constructed
Perry Mason episode or a 2014 remake of Much Ado About Nothing.
Despite all the pomp and circumstance, each of the nine felony
charges against the first term judge have unraveled and the
prosecutors case has gone down the drain, along with Hamilton County
taxpayers money. When asked during pretrial hearings what the trial is
actually costing, the prosecutors office admitted that they had not yet
negotiated a fee. So, essentially it seems that prosecutor Joe Deters,
handed special prosecutors Merlyn Shiverdecker and Scott Crosswell, III
a blank check to bring these frivolous charges against Hunter.
Defense attorney Clyde Bennett, II, who has used the prosecutors own
witnesses to skillfully dismantle the prosecutors case, says the charges
amount to a personal vendetta and prosecutorial vindictiveness
towards a judge who refused to give up her seat.
Hunter is accused of theft for using her county-issued credit card to
pay court fees, stemming from charges filed against her judicial office;
having an unlawful interest in a public contract by using her judicial
office to secure overtime for her brother; and for backdating court
entries to prevent the prosecutors office from filing appeals.
Testimony of witnesses proved that Hunter was never personally
informed of the specific business expenses the card could be used for,
however she never used her credit card for anything other than
business. Witness testimony revealed that Judge Karla Grady had, but
was given the opportunity to correct her mistake. Hunter was instead

charged with three felonies associated with the business oriented filing
fees.
Dwayne Bowman, superintendant of the Youth Center (2020) testified
that Hunter used her position to secure overtime for her brother and
subsequently intervened in her brothers investigation after he was
fired. On cross-examination, however Bowman admitted that he
coordinated the overtime through Hunters bailiff and had in fact never
communicated directly with Hunter regarding her brothers overtime.
Hunters brother who amassed only 4.9 hours in overtime on Judge
Tracie Hunters floor, worked for the juvenile court for several years
before his sister won her judicial seat. Stephen could not confirm
whether his sister even knew he was working on her floor. Over the
course of the year, Stephen Hunter only worked 93 hours of overtime
at the Youth Center, while several others holding his position worked
upwards of 2500 hours in overtime.
No evidence was presented that proves that Hunter interfered with the
investigation, however the prosecution is accusing Hunter of securing
documents from the court and giving them to her brothers attorney
prior to the investigation into his firing. These documents were public
records claims defense attorney Bennett. The defense plans to call
witnesses who will testify that they requested and secured public
records from Hunter.
Testimony by Proware software executive and case manager Lisa Miller,
revealed that Miller, Connie Murdock, Karla Gunther and others
routinely backdated court entries. On Friday, it was also revealed that
Judge Hunters cases had been changed and deleted in the courts
computer system, overturning her original ruling, which was not in
favor of the magistrates decision in the A.C. case. The A.C. case is
one of two that she is currently being brought up on charges for.
Hunter does not have the ability to delete an entry from the system.
Modifying the judges decision could constitute a criminal offense on
the part of Connie Murdock; the case management supervisor who
Miller says ordered the change. During pre-trial hearings special
prosecutor Crosswell told defense attorney Bennett that if he could
show him one incident where anyone else backdated documents I will
prosecute them as well.
On cross-examination, Proware software executive testified that the
reason he did not provide the names of who actually did the
backdating is because the prosecutor didnt ask him to. No testimony

or evidence was presented demonstrating that Hunter backdated the

documents in question.
News media outlets, which previously sensationalized the allegations
against Hunter, have now chosen to no longer write daily articles on
the case. Kimball Perry, a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter who has been
described by supporters as obsessed, unprofessional, aggressive, onesided, and tabloidal in his reporting of the pretrial hearings, became
eerily silent and almost non-existent as defense attorney Clyde
Bennett, II masterfully dismantled the prosecutors case using the
prosecutions witnesses.
Assistant Prosecutor James T. Harper admitted that the prosecutors
were fighting Hunter and representing her at the same time, when he
was lead attorney for the Board of Elections in an attempt to suppress
votes from predominantly black communities to try to keep Hunter off
the bench. Hunter eventually won her case and the election. During
cross examination, Harper admitted that he, Joe Deters and several
others in the prosecutors office were upset when Hunter filed
grievances against them with the Ohio Supreme Court. It is the worst
thing that can happen to an attorney, he stated. When Bennett asked
if this wasnt a conflict of interest, Harper said we were fighting her as
Tracie Hunter and representing her judicial office.
Katherine Pridemore, the prosecutions star witness and also an
employee of the prosecutors office, further demonstrated the strength
of Bennetts claim that the prosecutors office had it in for Hunter and
wanted her off the bench by any means necessary. Pridemore became
unraveled as she railed against Hunter pointing her fingers and
gnashing her teeth, I lived and breathed your client, Pridemore said.
While under oath, Pridemore said the directives to investigate Hunter
came from the prosecutor and the Ohio Supreme Court. John
VanNorman of the Ohio Supreme Court denies that they ever
conducted an investigation on Judge Hunter.
Pridemores testimony was further impeached by Chief Public Defender
Raymond T. Faller, when he admitted that there were no timeline for
cases on appeal and when he admitted that the cases that they
accused Hunter of being out of time on did not harm children and
originally filed in 1998 and 2005, long before Hunter took the bench.
On cross-examination, Prosecutor William Breyer also disputed
Pridemores testimony that Hunter used nunc pro tunc entries to
backdate. A non pro tunc entry is not used to backdate, it is used only
to correct an earlier entry. It cannot be used to change a date.

Bishop Bobby Hilton is calling for a massive protest rally and press
conference on Hamilton County courthouse steps at noon on Monday,
September 29th. Prosecutor Joe Deters office who brought these
trumped up charges against Judge Hunter, is the same prosecution
team responsible for allow the officer to go free of charges in the
homicide of John Crawford, who was holding a toy gun he intended to
purchase at the Walmart store in Beavercreak, Ohio.
###
Vanessa Enoch, Ph.D. student
Union Institute & University
Reporting from Cincinnati
You Got the Power
P.O. Box 146
Tuskegee, Alabama 36087
(334) 328-6627