If you’ve spent any time following the messy world of Cuyahoga County politics, you know the name Celebrezze. It’s basically royalty in Cleveland’s judicial circles. But late in 2025, that legacy took a massive hit.
Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze didn’t just lose her seat on the Domestic Relations Court; she resigned in disgrace right before the holidays. It wasn’t a voluntary "I'm retiring to spend time with family" kind of exit, either. She was facing a felony charge and an Ohio Supreme Court that had finally seen enough.
The core of the scandal sounds like something out of a bad legal thriller: a judge, a secret love interest, and nearly $500,000 in court-appointed fees. Basically, the allegations were that Judge Leslie Celebrezze was investigated for steering business to a friend—specifically, Mark Dottore.
The Steakhouse Kiss and the Private Eye
This whole thing didn't start with a high-level government audit. It started because a guy named Jason Jardine got suspicious. Jardine was going through a contentious divorce in Celebrezze’s court and felt like something was off with how his case was being handled.
He didn't just complain to his lawyer. He hired a private investigator.
The PI followed the judge and caught some pretty damning footage. We’re talking about videos of Celebrezze visiting Dottore’s home for hours during the workday. The "smoking gun" for many was a video of the two of them exchanging a kiss on the lips outside a steakhouse after a two-hour dinner.
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While Celebrezze and Dottore initially denied they were anything more than lifelong friends, the evidence piled up. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct eventually found that she had consulted divorce attorneys herself and had told other judges she was in love with Dottore. Phone records showed they spent over 300 hours on the phone in a single year.
That’s a lot of "business" calls.
How the Steering Actually Worked
In the world of high-stakes divorce, a "receiver" is a person the judge appoints to manage the assets while the couple fights it out. It’s a lucrative gig. They get paid out of the marital estate—meaning the couple’s own money.
Between 2017 and 2023, Celebrezze approved roughly $500,000 in fees for Dottore’s company.
But here’s the kicker: to get Dottore on those cases, Celebrezze had to bypass the system. Most courts use a random assignment process so judges can’t hand-pick cases. Prosecutors say Celebrezze manually assigned high-value cases to herself and then signed court entries falsely claiming the computer had picked her randomly.
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On January 19, 2023, she allegedly filed a fraudulent journal entry stating she was randomly assigned to a case when she had actually plucked it for herself. This wasn't a one-time "oops." The Ohio Supreme Court noted an extensive pattern of misconduct across at least four major divorce cases.
The Fallout: Resignations and Felony Charges
By December 22, 2025, the walls finally closed in. Celebrezze was charged with tampering with records, a third-degree felony. She resigned from the bench that same day.
It didn't stop there. On January 13, 2026, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended her law license for two years (with one year stayed). Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy was pretty blunt about it, noting that judges are held to the highest possible standard and Celebrezze failed to meet it.
The human cost was real, too. Georgeanna Semary, Celebrezze’s long-time judicial assistant, ended up being a whistleblower of sorts. After Semary provided public records (invoices) to a reporter from The Marshall Project, she was demoted and retaliated against.
Cuyahoga County taxpayers just recently had to foot the bill for a $400,000 settlement for Semary. That's on top of $250,000 in legal fees the county already paid to defend the judge.
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What This Means for Your Trust in the Court
Honestly, it's a mess. When a judge manipulates the "random" assignment of cases, the entire idea of a fair trial goes out the window. If you’re a litigant in that court, you’re basically walking into a rigged game.
The investigation proved that:
- The "random" computer assignment wasn't actually being followed.
- Personal relationships weren't being disclosed to the parties involved.
- Whistleblowers within the court system were being punished for following public records laws.
So, where do things stand now?
As of early 2026, Celebrezze is still dealing with the criminal side of the tampering charge. A visiting judge has been appointed to oversee her case because, unsurprisingly, all the local judges she used to work with had to recuse themselves.
If you are currently involved in a case where a receiver was appointed, or if you feel a judge is behaving with a conflict of interest, you have rights. You can file an affidavit of disqualification with the state Supreme Court.
It’s also a good reminder to always ask for a breakdown of receiver fees. In the Jardine case, Dottore was eventually ordered to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars for overbilling and unauthorized expenses. Transparency is the only real defense against this kind of "steering."
Moving forward, the Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court is under intense pressure to prove its assignment system is actually tamper-proof. Whether or not that actually happens remains to be seen.