COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court declined to review the misconduct case involving Geauga County's Juvenile and Probate Judge on Tuesday.
The court denied Timothy Grendell's motion for reconsideration, according to a list of case announcements issued by the court.
Grendell filed the motion December 1st, just days after the Ohio Supreme Court found Grendell committed judicial misconduct when he detained and charged two teenage brothers who refused to visit their estranged father.
Judge Grendell's suspension
The Ohio Supreme Court suspended Geauga County Juvenile and Probate Judge Timothy Grendell for at least six months last November.
RELATED: Ohio Supreme Court suspends Geauga Cunty Judge Timothy Grendell after News 5 Investigation
The court found Grendell violated judicial conduct rules when he locked up Conner and Carson Glasier, then 13 and 15, n the Portage-Geauga Juvenile Detention Center for three nights over the custody dispute back in 2020.
The court dismissed two other charges against Grendell.
The judge was suspended for 18 months with 12 months stayed. He was ordered to immediately leave the bench. His suspension is without pay.
The court's decision came just 10 days after News 5 Investigator Sarah Buduson's report revealed Grendell's case was the oldest judicial professional misconduct case on the court's docket.
It had been more than a year since the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct recommended that Geauga County Judge Timothy Grendell be suspended for violating the judicial code of misconduct.
Brothers detained over custody dispute
The backbone of the disciplinary case against Grendell stemmed from his decision to order the Glasier brothers to spend three nights in solitary confinement during the pandemic.
The judge ordered them to be locked up and charged them as unruly after the brothers refused parental visitation.
The court found the unruly charges were unwarranted and there was no basis to detain them.
The court also found Grendell violated a juvenile court rule when he banned them from calling their mother, Stacy Hartman, while they were in detention.
Hartman was frustrated that the court took so long to issue its ruling and believes Grendell should have faced harsher punishment for detaining her sons.
After the court's decision today, she sent News 5 the following statement:
"A judge who respects the judiciary and their oath of office would have accepted responsibility for their actions. This judge's punishment pales in comparison to the damage he has caused my family mentality, emotionally and physically. Yet, he has continued to deny his misconduct with zero remorse. This Judge should never be seated in a judges seat again. "
