Montgomery County judge accused of ethics violation for early release of inmate

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A Montgomery County judge is the focus of a new ethics complaint that accuses him of improperly releasing a prison inmate after repeatedly talking about the case privately with the inmate’s mother for more than a year.

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The copy of the complaint is from the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct, which deals with ethics and professional conduct violations for lawyers and judges in the state.

As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, it’s aimed at Judge Richard Skelton whose office is at the Montgomery County Courthouse.

The complaint says the judge knows the inmate’s mother because she worked at his doctor’s office.

Aaron Xox pleaded guilty in 2020. He admitted to charges including aggravated robbery, felonious assault, and escape after he knocked a Montgomery County deputy to the ground, jumped in the driver’s seat of his cruiser, and ran over his arm while taking off from the scene.

The next month, a judge sent Cox to prison at his sentencing. What happened in the years that followed is the subject of this new ethics complaint.

The document says in December 2021 Cox’s mother talked to Skelton about her son’s case while he was at a doctor’s appointment.

The complaint says she worked at that doctor’s office and that those conversations continued through text messages over the next several months.

News Center 7 went to the courthouse Thursday and talked to Skelton and asked him if there was anything he’d like to say to include in News Center 7′s report. He said no comment and referred News Center 7′s John Bedell to his lawyer. We are awaiting a response.

In April 2022, two months after the judge that originally sentenced Cox retired, the complaint says Skelton submitted an order to transfer Cox’s case to his courtroom without telling the presiding judge he had been talking to Cox’s mom about the case privately.

The next month, May 2022, Cox’s lawyer filed court documents asking for Skelton to let him out of prison.

Two days later, the complaint says Skelton texted Cox’s mom he had set a hearing for the matter and said, in part “... will call u later and let u know my plan. remember, do not tell him he is getting released!”

In June 2022, in a hearing at the courthouse, Skelton granted the request from Cox’s lawyer to let him out of prison.

The next month, the complaint says Montgomery County Judges Timothy O’Connell and Mary Wiseman got wind of what Skelton had been doing and confronted him about it —encouraging him to self-report to the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct.

The document says Skelton refused, so O’Connell and Wiseman filed a grievance against him.

The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct now wants Skelton to face professional punishment.

Cox is back in prison in Ohio after he violated his parole in the fall of 2022.

Skelton and his lawyer have to respond to the complaint in writing by October 10. Then the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct will hold a hearing and come up with a report that gets filed with the Ohio Supreme Court.

Both sides have a chance to file objections to the report, and the Supreme Court issues a decision and potential disciplinary order.

News Center 7 received the following statement from the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct’s Director:

Once Judge Skelton files an answer to the formal complaint, the case will be assigned to a hearing panel consisting of three members of this Board. That hearing panel will then schedule and conduct a hearing and, assuming the panel finds ethical violations, prepare a written report for consideration by the full 28-member Board. The report would outline facts and rule violations and recommend a sanction for the misconduct. The Board-approved report will then be filed with the Supreme Court, and the parties will have an opportunity to file objections to the Board’s report and recommendation. With our without objections, the Court conducts an independent review of the matter and issues a decision and disciplinary order.

Our time guidelines provide that a hearing should be conducted within 150 days after the panel is assigned. Assuming Judge Skelton files a timely answer and assuming no unforeseen delays, the hearing would likely be conducted in February or March next year.

—  Richard A. Dove, Director Ohio Board of Professional Conduct

We will continue following this story.

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