New Criminal Opinions, 11th District Criminal Case Update

It’s been a light few weeks after the last quarterly avalanche. The 11th didn’t release any new criminal opinions last week.  The week before that saw only a pro se appeal of a case that wasn’t even finished yet, so the Court just dismissed the appeal as premature.  If you are interested in the legalese translation: there was no final appealable order, therefore the appellate court had no jurisdiction.

State v. Aziz-Hakim, 2014-Ohio-3006.
The sole criminal (or in this case, juvenile) opinion this week was In Re: M.S., 2014-Ohio-3184.  After the court granted an emergency temporary custody request, it adjudicated the child Abused and Dependent.  The Department of Job and Family Services took custody of the child and implemented a case plan.  Fast forward a couple years and things still weren’t going well.  JFS asked for permanent custody, which the trial court granted.

Mother raises a manifest weight argument, but the burden of proof is lower for the Government than in a criminal trial, so it’s an even harder argument to make.  The other issue is a question of whether it was ethical for the child’s counselor to offer a recommendation regarding visitation.  The Court says that it was ethical, but even if it wasn’t that wouldn’t make the testimony inadmissible.  Judgment affirmed.  Grendell, Cannon, Westcott.