ELUM: ABOUT TO BE JUDGED FOR A SECOND TIME. WILL HE REMAIN A JUDGE?

May 6, 2016 could prove be a career ending date for Massillon Municipal Court judge Edward Joseph Elum.

For the second time within five years, Elum faces disciplinary charges at the hand of Ohio's Disciplinary Counsel in a hearing to be held at 10:00 in a hearing room located within the Ohio Supreme Court complex in Columbus.

Here is a LINK to a SCPR blog which details the charge that Elum has been brought up on.

And here is actual copy of the complaint itself.  (Republished to ensure that I have my facts straight)



To be fair with Judge Elum (something I do not think he demonstrates with some with whom he deals as a judge), here is a LINK to a SCPR blog which contains his formal answer to the complaint.

One possible sanction, should he be found in violation of Ohio's Code of Judicial Conduct, is the loss or suspension of underlying license to practice law and therefore necessarily, in a derivative sense, his right to continue to be an Ohio judge.

One might think that I get some pleasure out of the legal travails of Judge Elum.

For on March 16, 2010 he launched a savage attack on my character for having had the audacity as the author of The Stark County Political Report to write about his having involved himself in a political dispute with former Massillon police chief Robert Williams.  (LINK to March 10, 2010 blog detailing the dispute that Elum embroiled himself in)

The attack.

First, this:

And then this:

At the time, we did not know that Elum himself would have his professionalism and character placed under scrutiny by Ohio's Disciplinary Counsel.

And found to be wanting.  (LINK to case of October 18, 2012 in which Elum was found deficient in judicial ethics and sanctioned)

Now we have a second complaint.

Maybe a second "personal note," this time from Marty to Eddie, is in order?

Therein lies the rub with Edward Joseph Elum.

Though he has a sterling record of having done a lot of good in Massillon and indeed across Stark County, he simply lacks the temperament to be a judge.

To return to the question posed above:  Do I take delight in Elum's current troubles?

"Not in the least!."

It is never good for society as a whole and in this instance Stark County/Massillon to have one who sits in judgement of others to lack self-control.

I suspect that the foregoing Elum ethical matters are "the tip of the 'proverbial' iceberg."

Those close to Elum appear to have failed him.

 If they "really" were looking out for the best interest of Eddie Elum, they should have been telling the King that "he has no clothes."

One has to believe that there has been ample opportunity for his government/political friends to challenge this judge to clean up his act.

But it seems that they have been too cowardly to do so.

But in the end, it has been Edward Joseph Elum who has failed himself!

If the May 6th hearing goes against him, he will only have himself to blame.