CLEVELAND, Ohio – The state’s prime judicial officer has denied Cleveland lawyer Subodh Chandra’s endeavor to take out a choose from his contempt-of-courtroom case involving the University Hospitals fertility case.
Ohio Supreme Court docket Main Justice Maureen O’Connor dismissed a ask for to disqualify Geauga County Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Paschke involving Chandra’s protests about the jurist, according to court docket filings Monday.
O’Connor mentioned in a 9-site ruling that Paschke did not mislead Chandra or misrepresent the reality in an April order at the center of the contempt issue. She also stressed that Paschke is not biased in opposition to Chandra and has not formed “a fastened anticipatory judgment on any concern in the underlying case.”
Under Ohio regulation, the main justice decides requests for disqualifications. The regulation does not enable for an attraction, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court docket said.
Chandra’s legal professional, Todd Peterson, very last month submitted the ask for to take out Paschke from handling Chandra’s hearing. The issue stems from Chandra resubmitting documents about the UH situation on the public docket two hrs immediately after Paschke had purchased them eliminated April 2.
The files contained a 25-web site affidavit from Dr. Andrew Bhatnager, the former director of the UH fertility lab. He blamed staff members and administrators for a freezer catastrophe in 2018 that rendered 4,000 eggs and embryos nonviable.
UH attorneys have sought to continue to keep the doc and numerous other individuals in the situation beneath seal, boasting that they contained private information and facts and that the community launch of the records could taint a jury in a lawsuit submitted last year versus the clinic.
In her ruling, O’Connor wrote that an legal professional for UH termed a workers member of Paschke’s place of work to say that Chandra experienced filed the documents and asked for that they be positioned underneath seal, pending added filings from the hospital.
Later on, Paschke did, in truth, situation the purchase positioning the paperwork beneath seal. She explained in filings that she issued the get dependent on her critique of the Chandra’s documents and know-how of protective orders in the case, not on the UH attorney’s connect with, according to O’Connor’s ruling.
Later, right after the order experienced appeared, Chandra resubmitted Bhatnager’s affidavit for the reason that a patient’s title had not been redacted in the primary submitting. Chandra claimed the documents were being a make a difference of community document and were not confidential.
O’Connor stated Paschke must have disclosed the unsolicited get in touch with from UH’s attorney previously. But the chief justice reported, “[Paschke’s] failure to do so can not be explained as a merchandise of bias warranting her elimination.”
She reported there was no indicator that Paschke misrepresented the reality.
“No objective observer would fairly conclude that Decide Paschke is now biased towards Mr. Chandra or dilemma her capacity to impartially preside in the underlying circumstance,” O’Connor stated.
Paschke has put a gag order on the scenario, stopping attorneys from commenting. The situation involving Chandra stems from Bhatnager’s try to sever his ties with UH, exactly where he no more time functions.
The hospital is concerned in a lawsuit pending right before Paschke that was introduced by households who shed eggs and embryos in the March 2018 freezer malfunction. Bhatnager, in his affidavit, blamed an incompetent, negligent employees. UH attorneys have explained Bhatnager’s submitting was a self-serving attempt to support resurrect his vocation.