Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Mark Betleski has now recused himself from cases involving the Lorain city police department, after the judge reportedly stated the department has lost creditability for making inaccurate statements about bond amounts issued to repeat offenders.
Betleski accused Lorain Police detective Jake Morris of making false statements in connection with a case involving repeat offender Roland Scales in a News 5 report on April 24, 2015.
Lorain FOP President Kyle Gelenius fired back, telling News 5 Detective Morris made no mistakes when he asked the judge to keep Scales in jail during that News 5 interview.
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Police report Scales has more than 35 felony convictions, but claim, in many of those cases, Scales was given community control instead of prison time.
Gelenius believes Judge Betleski owes Detective Morris an apology because he believes the judge took those comments out of context.
News 5 made multiple attempts to reach Judge Betleski for his side of the story, but none of our calls were returned.
Gelenius referenced other cases where Judge Betleski issued bonds he considered to be too low and said bonds for repeat offenders have to be revoked more often for the safety of the community.
