After serving a six-month suspension, Geauga County Judge Timothy Grendell successfully reapplied for reinstatement.
Grendell was suspended in November 2025 over a 2020 incident where he locked up two teenage brothers for refusing to see their estranged father.
WATCH:
RELATED: Ohio Supreme Court suspends Geauga County Judge Timothy Grendell after News 5 Investigation
The suspension
The Ohio Supreme Court found Grendell violated judicial conduct rules when he locked up Conner and Carson Glasier, then 13 and 15, in the Portage-Geauga Juvenile Detention Center for three nights over the custody dispute back in 2020. The judge ordered them to be locked up and charged them as unruly after the brothers refused a visit with their estranged father.
The Ohio Supreme Court found the unruly charges were unwarranted and there was no basis to detain them.
The judge was suspended for 18 months with 12 months stayed. He was ordered to immediately leave the bench. His suspension was without pay.
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.
The court's decision to suspend the judge 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 Grendell be suspended for violating the judicial code of misconduct.
More about the case:
RELATED: Two teen brothers refused to see their dad. An Ohio judge locked them up during a pandemic
