Stacy Lefton for Court of Appeals Judge

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gets me ready for the day at all day info
and check in throughout the day. Fifty five krs the
talk station eight oh five. If you're a fifty five
kr CD talk station, Happy Friday. Oh. Brian Thomas right here,
happy to welcome to the fifty five Carceee Morning. So
you can find her online. Left in four judge dot

(00:22):
com right there in the Republican Party recommended vote list,
endorsed by the Republican Party. And taking great comfort I
am in the fact that she's also been endorsed by
the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police. Tough on crime running
for Hamilton County Court of Appeals Judge first District, Stacey
left and welcome to the morning show.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thank you, Brian, good morning. I'm happy to be on
the show this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Well, it's a pleasure having you on, and I really
hope that you get elected. We need some folks that
are tough on crime. You are demonstrably so let me
just point out to my listeners. I love this. I
hate hate child abuse. I think that's probably the most
horrific crime that can be committed, is abusing an innocent child.
Usually is very trusting of some adult. You deal with

(01:03):
that all the time. You received the Outstanding Service Award
from the Cincinna Children's Hospital Mayorson Center in honor of
Child Abuse Awareness Month. And also and I love this
award apparently from the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office, the kick
Ass Prosecutor of the Year twenty twenty three award as well.
Well done there in terms of what looking out for children.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Thank you. I got those awards last year because myself
and my co counsel Ernest Lee and Rich Schneider and
had a case involving John and Kate Snyder, who are
a couple from Springfield Township who adopted six children from China.
They abused all their children. They even had a biological child.
They had three biological children, two and one of them

(01:44):
they abused as well. And of the six kids from China,
one diet of natural causes the first, and then the
rest of them they abused, and one of them they
actually killed. So last year, actually at this very time
last year, we were in a we were in this trial.
It lasted six weeks. We got a conviction which was terrific,

(02:07):
and now Kate Snyder's doing thirty one years to life
and John Snyder's doing twenty nine years to life for
killing their son Adam and of using their other children.
And because of our work with Children's Hospital and this case,
that's why we got those awards. I got those wars
last year and I'm very proud of that.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well, I would be too, I mean, demonstrably tough on crime.
And apparently you're in front of a judge that at
least had the wherewithal of sentence into some serious time.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, we were very thankful for that. It was a
hard fought battle. These people fought us tooth and nail.
At one point, the couple even tried to sue the
coroner's office to get the cause of death changed because
they wanted to they wanted to say Children's Hospital was
at fault. It was a long heart Hollard fought battle. Well.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
To my listeners, you might not understand the distinction. As
a common please judge versus working in the appellate level,
you're going to be dealing with both criminal and civil matters. Correct.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Correct, criminal civil. I will handle cases from municipal court,
common police court, the domestic relations court and juvenile court.
You here, it's a reviewing court, so anything any hearing
that goes on in any of those courts. If someone
wants to appeal it, it goes to our Court of Appeals.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
And why do you view the role of judge. I
know we have activist judges, which I am not a
fan of, and we have more traditionalist judges who review
the facts and the case law and judge things accordingly
based upon the law. They do not rewrite laws. If
there are flaws or constitutional issues in connection with the law,
it's identified and it's basically referred back to the legislative

(03:45):
brands to do the fixing. That's the way things are
supposed to work, at least in my mind. What's your perception.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
I feel like the reason why I am personally running
for judge is we've had all these jug budges who
go about they want to change the law. I am
going to follow the law. I'm going to follow the
constitution of the State of Ohio and the United States,
and I don't want You know, the reason why I

(04:13):
ran is that that case that I got all those
awards for, I was scared that it was going to
go off to our Court of Appeals and be reversed.
Oh and I didn't want to see that happen.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I'm sorry, Oh no, no, no, I was just going
to say, I mean, what possible grounds could it have
been reversed if you didn't have an appropriate makeup on
the appellate court?

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Well, prior to my trial going forward last year, there
was a trial murder case that went through that one
of the judges up in common and please just decided
to reverse it because he decided the jurors didn't make
the right decision. And I don't know how he can
make that determination. He didn't see the witnesses testify, right,
He didn't get to go to the scene like the

(04:53):
jurors got to do. He didn't get to hold the
evidence in his hand. He didn't hear the tone of
the voices of the witnesses who were testifying. Was a
one dimensional item, was a transcript. I know myself and
the job that I do as a prosecutor, which I've
been doing for almost twenty years now. You know, we
get interviews all the time and we get them transcribed,
and reading the transcript is a lot quicker than listening

(05:16):
to them. But listening to them, you seem body language,
you see the tone in their voice, and that goes
to their credibility. And if you don't watch those items,
and if you just go from a one dimensional transcript,
I don't know how you can determine that twelve people
that witnessed all these people testify made the wrong decision.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Yeah, you have to have respect for the jurors. That's
exactly what they're there for. You know, I was only
a criminal Well, yeah, criminal trial. Guy pressed charges against guy.
It was basically he said, she said kind of thing.
But it came down to witness credibility. The guy that
was loving the charges claimed he got assault and assaulted,
and after hearing him speak and what his recitation and

(05:54):
events were, and then hearing from the other guy, it
was obvious who was lying. We all walked into the
jury room. I said, is there anybody who here who
doesn't have reasonable doubt? And everybody looked at me and
said nope. I said, we're done. We deliberated like a minute.
I mean, that's what the jury does, and how a
judge could overrule that and without seeing the witnesses or
hearing them is beyond me. But isn't there a legal

(06:17):
standard for the review of evidence on an appellate level?

Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yes, there is, but they also, you know, we have
activists judges upstairs, and if they're they're kind of I
want to say, when I first started working down here
in two thousand and one, I worked for a judge
and when the prosecutors came in the room, they were
well respected by the court. We are not well respected
by the court anymore. We walk into the court room

(06:42):
and they are automatically think we've done something wrong. We
haven't provided something without even knowing, and so we go
up when our cases go upstairs, it's all we already
have a mark against us before they even read anything.
And a lot of those judges haven't been trial courts,
shootors or attorneys. They've just been like one was a

(07:04):
clerk over or a law clerk for one of the judges.
They haven't tried cases. They haven't heard cases actually being tried.
They just hear argument. So they have a different perspective
than someone like myself who's spent twenty years in the courtroom.
Over twenty years in the courtroom.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, yeah, we seem to have a lot of that
going on with the prosecutor's race right now here in
Hamilton County. Allow me to interject Melissa Powers for Hamilton
County Prosecute. We need to keep her in that role
because she's tough on crime as well. Well, yeah, I
guess for those so many people just maybe either don't
vote down ballot or they'll simply vote party ticket. And

(07:41):
in connection with someone who's literally never tried a case
or done nothing beyond being legal a law clerk for
someone else, how that person could get elected is really
to me, having practiced law and been in courtrooms for
sixteen years, you know that's really important. I could never
cast a vote for someone with that little experience, especially

(08:01):
on an appellate level. That's the problem with you know,
the endorsement in us being in Hamilton County blue. If
if she's on or he is on the blue ticket,
someone will just vote because of that and nothing else.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Right. We actually, I've been spending some time down at
the Board of Elections at the polls. You know, now
that early voting has started, people just I stand there.
I will say that there are a lot more people
coming over and wanting the pink sheet, which is fabulous
and I'm thankful for that, but you're right, people do
just go get the blue sheet and they vote straight
down that ticket and they don't know who they're voting for.

(08:37):
I think you need to ask people who are in
the court system, not not like someone handing out a
blue sheet. Call it. If you know people who practice
law in the court system, ask them, get their recommendations.
They'll know who to vote for.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
That's very important. I mean, well, right, it may be
a little problematic. I know how little people care about
politics generally speaking, and then to dive into an area
where they have no experience and hopefully will have no
experience ever, the judicial system. You know, getting folks to
ask questions on these down ballot rates can be problematic.
But you do you are on the pink slip. You

(09:11):
are endorsed by the Republican Party, and I know for
my listeners that probably will be enough. But I will
encourage folks to go to lefton for Judge dot com
and check out your credentials as well, I mean, really
a great background, qualified to do the job.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yes, And on my website left and for Judge dot
Com there are I linked some of my cases that
I've had in the past. Yeah, I had you talked
about my Snyder case. There was also I had a
case last year as well. A man named Diland Hurt,
who was a known killer. He had killed a lot
of people. They hadn't been able to have enough evidence

(09:46):
to go forward on him. Last year we were able
to try him and he is as he's doing life
without the possibility of parole now because of his killing
of one person and attempted murder on two others. Actually
one of the other people. He's paralyzed for life. And
that case was crazy. We tried. It was a little

(10:06):
over weak. He acted out in court. He punched his
attorney at one point. He had tried to have drugs
smuggled in through pants because he peede himself during trial
and he had to get a new set of pants,
and his family brought pants in and there were drugs
stown into it. I mean, the things that I have
seen in the past year, and the hard fought battles

(10:28):
I had last year with these really bad people is
what drove me to decide to run for offit.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Well, I'm glad you are running, and I'm glad to
have you on the program, and I will strongly encourage
my listeners do some research. I mean, as far as
I'm concerned, go ahead and trust to think slip as
I have just got done saying people will just trust
the blue slip and vote for the Democrat. You are
voting for someone who is undoubtedly woke and someone who
is not going to be tough on crime if you
do that. If you want traditional judge, you want someone

(10:56):
who understands the practice. You want someone who is not
going to try to rewrite laws or do something crazy
like dismiss Jersey. Evaluation of the evidence and witness testimony.
You know you're in the right hands with a states
left in here. Can I just point out one more
thing about your background, because it took me way back.
Your family owned Provident Camera.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yes, my family and Provident Camera. That was my first job,
was working. I used to go down on Saturday mornings
with my dad and I would help out in the store,
and for my work, I would get twenty dollars for
the day, which I thought was very exciting when I
was younger.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh yeah, I used I'd love going in there. That
was the best camera store around forever. And you know,
it's just weird to see with digital photography the way
things have changed. I'm sorry to take you down that road,
but I had a little wisp of nostalgia when I
saw that, because I had an olympus om one when
I was in junior high school and I used to
stare longingly at you know, telephoto lenses and auto winder

(11:55):
stuff I could never have afforded, but it was always
right there. It was drool candy for me when I
as a young man. Anyway, Stacy left in vote for
her appellate court. It's right there at lefton at theft
one for judge dot Com. I wish you all the
best as we fast approach the election.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Stacy, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
It's been my distinct pleasure. And Hardy one you do
the same, and that wonderful weekend.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
Uh.

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