The Ohio Supreme Court has removed Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Peter J. Corrigan from a murder retrial, finding that he displayed bias against the defendant.
In a decision filed Tuesday by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy, the court removed Corrigan from the retrial of Michael Buehner and ordered Administrative Judge Brendan Sheehan to randomly select a new judge.
Kennedy based her decision on a series of incidents she said showed bias.
Twice Buehner and his attorney were not notified that the trial had been delayed until they showed up in court on trail day. This happened on Aug. 22, 2022 and Jan. 23 this year. Corrigan knew in advance that the trial could not go ahead.
On the day of the second delay, Corrigan was overheard by Randazzo telling prosecutors and the court's bailiff, "Buehner is going to plea."
“The statement, not being in dispute, raises the question — why? Why would the judge make that statement?” wrote Kennedy. “Considering the history of Buehner’s case, the number of delays and — most importantly — the judge’s statement on January 23, an objective observer may conclude that Judge Corrigan is attempting to wear Buehner down and force him to plead.”
Buehner was convicted in 2002 of killing Jerry Saunders in a dispute over drugs. The conviction was overturned in 2021, years after Buehner discovered several witness statements through a public records request.
An appeals court found that those witness statements, which raised doubts about Buehner’s guilt, were never turned over to the defense during his original trial.
Corrigan, a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor, was assigned the case on appeal.
At one point, after the Eighth District Court of Appeals ruled in Buehner’s favor, Corrigan waited three years to issue a ruling that would have moved the case on to the next step. Corrigan’s rulings denying Buehner’s attempts for a retrial were overturned twice by the appeals court.
After his conviction was overturned and Buehner was released on bail, the state subpoenaed all of his jailhouse communications. Among those communications were calls and messages between Buehner and his attorney.
Corrigan reviewed the messages and recordings for attorney client privilege before releasing them to the prosecution, including several instances where the defendant, his family and his attorney used vulgar language to insult Corrigan and question his integrity.
Corrigan argued those comments did not affect his impartiality.
But, in her decision, Kennedy noted that the comments may have added to his decision to further delay the trial in January and his comment about Buehner taking a plea.
“An objective observer could conclude that after listening to Buehner’s and Randazzo’s vulgar and critical comments attacking the judge personally and challenging his integrity, that the judge is using one of the few powers he has left to punish Buehner and Randazzo by forcing them to needlessly appear for trials that the judge knew would not proceed as scheduled,” Kennedy wrote.
Buehner has maintained his innocence since the original trial.
This is not the first case where questions about Corrigan’s impartiality led to the assignment of a new judge.
Corrigan recused himself from the high-profile retrial of Michael Sutton and Kenny Phillips last year after Phillips’ attorneys accused him of bias. Corrigan also denied those claims, but still recused himself.
