The Hamilton County Courthouse opens its doors on Sept. 18 for a behind-the-scenes look at the justice system. It’s an effort to make the courts more accessible with tours and talks with judges, the sheriff and the clerk of courts. On Cincinnati Edition we preview Ohio Open Doors, and producer Selena Reder takes a tour.
Guests:
- Judge Alison Hathaway, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas
- Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey
- Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Pavan Parikh
Beginning at noon, call 513-419-7100 or email talk@wvxu.org to have your voice heard on this topic. You can catch a recorded replay at 8 p.m.
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I’m walking up the steps to a large granite and limestone building. Fun fact about our courthouse. It’s number six. Built in 1919. The first one was a log cabin.
My first stop is the metal detector.
“Perfect. Toss your bag right up there. Anything in your pockets? You're good to go. Have a good day.”
Director of central services for the clerk of courts Jason Alexander is standing next to a bronze statue in the lobby. He’s my tour guide.
“We're going to check out the lobby and pay homage to the only statue that is anywhere in this building, which is of Captain John J. Desmond,” Alexander explains.
“And he died in the courthouse riots,” I say.
“He did. He died on March 29, 1884, the second night of the riots. He was an attorney in private practice, but he was also a captain in the National Guard, and his unit was activated. They ran out from the then courtyard of the courthouse, and as soon as he approached Main Street, he was shot and killed by rioters.”
“So, so why does he get the statue?”
“He is considered the defender of the courthouse.”
Past the defender of the courthouse we take the elevator upstairs.
“We are going to start at the law library, which was built as the crown jewel of this building.”
We meet law librarian Lauren Morrison inside.
“We get a lot of pro se litigants that come up here that may want to do a little bit of research to help inform what they need to do for their cases,” Morrison explains. “Pro se litigants are people who are defending themselves or representing themselves in court. And we are not able to give legal advice here, but we can direct people to informational materials that may help them to prepare their case.”
If someone does need help with a case, Morrison can direct them downstairs to the Help Center.
The library has vaulted ceilings and cork floors. There are grand chandeliers and a globe dangling from the center chandelier.
“I was reading something about this globe that it was — it's a design by Leonardo da Vinci.”
“Yes, it is based on Mappa Mundi, I believe, is how it's pronounced,” says Morrison. “It's just a neat historic space. We also have our stained glass windows up along the ceiling there, and those highlight names of notable figures in Cincinnati legal history, particularly around the time that the building was constructed in 1919. We actually just refurbished all of the stained glass here over the last year or so. So every bit of it was taken out and painstakingly treated and restored to its original splendor.”
The library saw its share of action in those riots mentioned earlier.
“When the courthouse was destroyed, it was considered to have the best law library in the country, and I think only a few volumes survived, and actually, this is one of the books that did survive the fire,” says Alexander. He points to a small, tattered volume in a display case.
“And there are numerous news reports of the then Hamilton County Recorder George Rabenstein literally feverishly running through the halls of the courthouse and throwing deed books out the windows. Some of those actually did survive.”
When the courthouse hosts its tours they’ll start in this library.
“We'll be having the Ohio Open Doors panel discussion as part of the America 250 program in here,” Morrison explains, “And it will feature speakers, including Judge Alison Hathaway, Judge William Mallory, Pavan Parikh, the Clerk of Courts, and Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey. So we'll be kind of the jumping-off point here in the law library, where people will get to participate and view that panel discussion, and then from there, people are able to tour the courthouse and visit different floors and departments to learn more from people who work in those places about how the court functions.”
Today I meet one of those judges, Virginia Tallent with the Court of Common Pleas.
“We hear felony crimes. Those are crimes that, in Ohio, generally the penalty for the crime is going to be more than six months,” says Tallent. “It's not always true. It could be six months in some instances or less in others, but that is generally a good rule of thumb for civil cases: We hear civil cases where the amount that's in dispute is $15,000 or more.”
I wonder what the hope is with opening the courthouse for tours. Does Judge Tallent think this will make the justice system more accessible?
“We want people to be here when maybe they want to be, and to learn a little bit about the courthouse, and to get questions answered in a way that's totally non-adversarial. Right, so you're not here for a court case, but you're just an interested person, and I think that the court really owes it to the community to be available to answer questions and to educate the public as much as we can.”
Not here for a court case but because you want to be here for an adoption, or a name change or as I was for my marriage ceremony. A joyous occasion in court. Before I exit the lobby I snap a photo of our courthouse defender. Maybe you’ll see him the next time you visit.
For Cincinnati Edition I’m Selena Reder.