CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg finds herself in familiar territory this December and January.
For the second time in 16 years, the highly regarded Synenberg, who is a Republican, is fresh off a general election defeat by a challenger armed with no judicial experience but a Democratic Party endorsement.
And just like the first time, another vacancy on the bench could allow Synenberg to remain in a black robe in the Justice Center — for a few years, at least.
Synenberg is among those who applied to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office to fill the vacancy created because Judge Deborah Turner abandoned her seat on the bench to run for a different one, allowing Turner to remain a judge for another four years.
Synenberg, in an interview in her chambers she was reluctant to give, declined to comment on her candidacy for the appointment.
But the 65-year-old reflected on her time on the bench and offered advice for incoming judges who find themselves in the same position she was nearly two decades ago.
“I think everybody comes in with idealism, hoping to make positive change. In that respect, I feel the same,” she said. “Without hope, you can’t really do much of anything here.”
Election carousel
Synenberg was a former social worker who worked in the Cuyahoga County Jail and a criminal defense attorney in 2005 when then-Ohio Gov. Bob Taft appointed her to Cleveland Municipal Court judgeship after then-Judge Mary Eileen Kilbane left to run for the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals.
Synenberg was re-elected in November 2005, then ran for a full six-year term on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court the next year and won, defeating Democrat Christine Agnello Russo.
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.
Synenberg had to run in 2014 to remain in the seat, and then again in 2016 to get a full six-year term. She won both races.
If DeWine appoints her to fill the seat that is currently open, she will have to run for re-election again in 2024 and then again in 2026, which would bring her up to eight campaigns in 18 years.
For her Democratic colleagues who were elected to a full term in 2006, the 2024 election would be their third campaign.
“I feel like a Congressperson,” she said.
High-profile cases
Synenberg has also navigated several high-profile cases in her career.
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. A jury recommended he receive the death penalty, but Synenberg exercised her judicial discretion and instead imposed three sentences of life without parole after finding that Shine, who was beaten at home and eaten up by the criminal justice system starting when he was just 10, never had a chance to succeed.
But it was in her first term on the common pleas court bench that she found herself in the cross hairs of then-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason.
Joe D’Ambrosio, who was convicted along with two other men of kidnapping and murdering a man in 1989 and sentenced to death, won a new trial after U.S. District Judge Kate O’Malley found prosecutors at the original trial, withheld exculpatory evidence that there was another suspect who had motive to kill the victim.
The case was assigned to Synenberg. Mason’s office in 2009 took the extraordinary step of asking the Ohio Supreme Court to kick her off the case in a brief that accused her of “conduct so egregious and basic that any third-year law student would understand that a conflict of interest existed.”
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. Ultimately, then-Chief Justice Thomas Moyer found that Mason’s office could not back up its claim and rejected the request.
O’Malley later barred Mason’s office from being able to prosecute D’Ambrosio again because prosecutors withheld the fact that their key witness had died.
Synenberg declined to comment on the case, citing the fact that it still stirs up emotions.
“I really don’t have any animus in my heart toward anybody,” she said.
Lessons
Synenberg did offer up what she has learned from being a judge and what she hopes others will bring with them to the bench.
“Follow the law and follow the evidence. Pray for patience. Have thick skin,” she said. “Be involved in the community for real, not just when you’re running.”
She also said compassion, humility and deference for the power that judges hold over people’s lives is critical to being a good judge.
“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.”
Leaving her mark
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. The docket links up defendants with grief counseling and other treatment to address the root cause of why the person wound up in court.
When the coronavirus pandemic essentially shut down the courts for months, Synenberg said, she called every member of the court each week to check on them. She also said her family helped make cards and called Pierre Ice Cream, which agreed to donate one pint of ice cream to each defendant.
“It’s like having a family,” she said. “These are like my kids.”
It’s also a reminder of the power of the bench to do good in people’s lives and not just punish offenders, she said.
“It’s endless with what we can offer to help,” she said. “I believe we can collectively be agents of change.”
Synenberg put that ethos to work. After a short time on the Recovery Court, she was taken aback by the number of women before her who were also losing custody of their children through civil filings.
“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.
Synenberg partnered with the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland to create the Pro Bono Collaborative to give people who have civil issues in court free attorney services.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees everyone the right to a criminal defense attorney, but no such right exists for people who are being sued in civil court, including for evictions of child custody hearings.
“It’s some of the most important issues where you don’t automatically get a lawyer,” Synenberg said. “Where are you going to lay your head at night? Where are your kids going to be?”
It’s not just the big questions, either. She said lots of people who seek help from the collaborative are trapped in a “quagmire of red tape” that can compound to weigh down their lives. Something as simple as someone falling behind on BMV payments can compound to thousands of dollars in fines, a suspended license and ultimately arrest, she said.
Sometimes, the solution is as simple as having an attorney call the BMV to get them on a repayment plan, she said.
“Our clients will spend all day getting out of this quagmire of red tape,” she said. “They’re overwhelmed, they’re saying, “I don’ know what to do next.” And it’s like ‘Let’s get you out of this situation so you can focus on getting a GED or finding a job to support your family and feel good.’”
She said that, if she does leave the bench, she hopes another judge will take up the mantle.
“It’s a program that I will absolutely do everything I can to remain involved in,” she said.
She added, “I am a lawyer.”
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