UPDATE (2:54 P.M.) PARK IS OUT AS CANDIDATE FOR 5TH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS?
ORIGINAL BLOG
It is amazing that Dixie Park has been able to move from being the SCPR's absolutely worst Stark County Political Subdivision Elected Official to being the second worst.
All of which sets up an intriguing guessing game as to whom The Report "new" #1 shall be when published later this week.
But reports that Park is actually showing some signs of maturing as a judge in that she recently recused herself on the initiative of a individual interested litigant in her court MAY BE as sign that she is finally getting it.
Or, it could be because she wants to move on the the 5th District Court of Appeals when Sheila Farmer retires and it is likely she will get opposition within her own Republican Party and she wants the controversy about her lack of Solomon qualities to die down over the next year.
Last April The Report had a discussion with a well-placed local Republican who mused about there being a number of Republicans who say they are interested in taking Judge Park on in a Court of Appeals race.
One is Delaware County Judge David Gormley (originally from nearby Barberton, Ohio).
Here is what Gormley had to say in response to a SCPR email back in April:
To: Martin Olson
...
It’s true that I’m considering a run for Judge Sheila Farmer’s appellate-court seat next year. My résumé is attached.
And here is a copy of that résumé:
As The Report understands it, Gormley when told that Park has campaign megabucks at her disposal; responded that he would be able to compete on that front.
So time will tell whether or not Park is able to move onto the bench of a court that reversed her several times has having violated the Constitutional rights of various litigants in her court.
Though not much has happened with Park since she achieved a first in being the very first SCPR worst Stark County elected official in May, 2015, her record in her ten years or so on the Stark County Probate Court bench is so horrible that unless she gets into the relative anonymity of the Court of Appeals, she can look forward to being a mainstay in the SCPR "Bottom 10 List" for a very long time.
As a refresher, here is the SCPR's blow-by-blow account of Park's history as Probate Court judge:
Judge Dixie Park of the Stark County Court of Common Pleas - Probate Division, is this first quarterly edition's absolutely worst Stark County "elected" public official.
It your name is Barbara Lockhart, a everyday Stark County citizen who had the misfortune to appear before Judge Park in October, 2013, you have to believe that the SCPR is "right on the mark," in selecting Park as Stark County's worst.
For in October of 2013 Ms. Lockhart lost - for some 10 days - what we all hold near and dear: "our personal liberty."
She lost it in Judge Park unconstitutionally denying to her a citizens due process of law rights, so said the Fifth District Court of Appeals on August 14, 2014.
All Stark Countians who read the SCPR should read the two blogs that The Report devoted to the legal travesty visited on Ms. Lockhart by Dixilene Park.
- Blog of September 22, 2014,
- Blog of September 23, 2014,
- Blog of September 25, 2014,
- Blog of September 29, 2014
And there is more "unconstitutional" administering of justice by Judge Park:
Are you ready for more on Judge Park and her seeming inability to apply the law correctly? (LINK to underlying blog)
And perhaps still another reversal on due process of law constitutional grounds by the Fifth District Court of Appeals in the offing? (LINK to blog with details)
As her highly questionable competence as a judge were not enough, it appears that what is hoped for a non-partisan judge may be missing from Judge Park.
From a July 21, 2014 SCPR blog:
To top things off, the SCPR has information from folks in a position to know who say that Judge Park:
- is impossible to work for in that she is known to have fired good quality employees on the whim of an emotional outburst, and
- seemingly has a list of favored/disfavored attorneys who get rewarded/punished depending, of course, on which list they are on.
Here's a real zinger.
The Report is told by Stark County Republican Party insiders that Judge Park is actively campaigning for - get this - Judge Sheila Farmer's seat on the Fifth District Court of Appeals.
Mind you, a court that has reversed her twice and may soon do so again.
Judge Farmer is retiring with the end of her current term next year.
It is unclear to The Report, but seems (according to reports) that Park has sought at the very least Farmer's neutrality in what will be an intra-party fight for the Republican nomination for the seat.
When the SCPR asks around about the prospect of Judge Dixie Park on the Fifth District Court of Appeals, the response is surprisingly favorable as compared to her remaining probate judge.
"Well," it is typically said, "she would be one of six (the entire court) or one of three (an empaneled court) and presumably can do less damage there than she has done in the probate court."
To which the SCPR answers: How about her being on NO Stark County court!
And The Report has reason to believe that Judge Park's past is about to catch up with her and her days as a judge at any level of the judiciary are numbered.
We can only hope, no?
For all the foregoing reasons (and more which The Report cut short to make this blog readable in terms of length), Judge Dixilene Park far and away over otherwise richly deserving competitors deserves the dubious distinction of being a runaway choice for the worst elected public official in all of Stark County!!!
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