Cleveland v. Toth

2023 Ohio 315
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 2, 2023
Docket111934
StatusPublished

This text of 2023 Ohio 315 (Cleveland v. Toth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland v. Toth, 2023 Ohio 315 (Ohio Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

[Cite as Cleveland v. Toth, 2023-Ohio-315.]

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO

EIGHTH APPELLATE DISTRICT COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA

CITY OF CLEVELAND, :

Plaintiff-Appellee, : No. 111934 v. :

CATHERINE D. TOTH, :

Defendant-Appellant. :

JOURNAL ENTRY AND OPINION

JUDGMENT: AFFIRMED RELEASED AND JOURNALIZED: February 2, 2023

Criminal Appeal from the Cleveland Municipal Court Case No. 2022 CRB 005864

Appearances:

Mark Griffin, Cleveland Director of Law, Aqueelah A. Jordan, Chief Prosecuting Attorney, and Aric Kinast, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for appellee.

Catherine D. Toth, pro se.

FRANK DANIEL CELEBREZZE, III, P.J.:

Appellant Catherine D. Toth brings the instant appeal challenging her

disorderly conduct conviction as adjudicated by the Cleveland Municipal Court.

After a thorough review of the applicable law and facts, we affirm. I. Factual and Procedural History

This case arose from a specific incident that occurred on July 8, 2022,

in Cleveland’s Edgewater neighborhood, but appears to stem from a longstanding

dispute between neighbors.

In the underlying incident, Toth was charged with disorderly conduct,

a minor misdemeanor in violation of Cleveland Codified Ordinances 605.03(a).

Pertinently, this ordinance reads:

(a) No person shall recklessly cause inconvenience, annoyance or alarm to another, by doing any of the following:

(1) Engaging in fighting, in threatening harm to persons or property, or in violent or turbulent behavior;

(2) Making unreasonable noise or offensively coarse utterance, gesture or display, or communicating unwarranted and grossly abusive language to any person, which by its very utterance or usage inflicts injury or tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;

(3) Insulting, taunting, or challenging another under circumstances in which such conduct is likely to provoke a violent response;

(4) Hindering or preventing the movement of persons on a public street, road, highway or right-of- way, or to, from, within or upon public or private property, so as to interfere with the rights of others, and by any act which serves no lawful and reasonable purpose of the offender;

(5) Creating a condition which is physically offensive to persons or which presents a risk of physical harm to persons or property, by any act which serves no lawful and reasonable purpose of the offender.

Toth entered a not guilty plea at arraignment. The case was set for

pretrial on December 6, 2022.

At pretrial, Toth entered a no-contest plea. The trial court received

statements from Toth and the city. The original citation contained the following description of the offense: “Toth did cause annoyance and alarm by standing on a

public sidewalk calling a neighbor a (Ni…). We told her to stop but she continued to

yell in the street and sidewalk [sic] caught on the WCS.” The city prosecutor

described the event as follows:

[THE CITY]: On July 8th of 2022 in the city of Cleveland in the afternoon, the officers did observe the defendant cause annoyance, alarm to public, uh, when she was on a public sidewalk using language that would be — cause disturbance. They did warn her to stop and she continued to use it, so it [sic] could’ve charged first degree aggravated disorderly conduct, because if you persist after warnings, uh, then it could be a first degree. But they did not charge that. They just charged the minor misdemeanor for using the language, which, um, for the record, uh, was inflammatory. * * *

(Tr. 6-7.)

Toth acknowledged that she used inflammatory language but

maintained that she was repeating what her neighbors were shouting at her. She

noted that she is an enthusiastic supporter of former President Obama, and her

neighbors used “the N word” to refer to him, that “all the people in this

neighborhood are white” and that “[t]here’s no African-Americans there.” (Tr. 10.)

Toth explained that she placed the initial call to the police due to the actions of her

neighbors. She stated that she repeatedly has trouble with her neighbors, and that

the neighbors frequently call her and her wife names and use “anti LGBTQ

language.” Toth further explained that “the N word” repulses her, but she was using

it so that the responding officers could “understand the nature of the

communications that [she] gets from across the fence from [her] neighbor.” (Tr. 8-

9.) After Toth gave this explanation, the trial court stated that it was going

to find Toth not guilty. The prosecutor immediately pointed out that Toth pled no-

contest and the ticket says that she did “cause annoyance and alarm” by standing

outside and using inflammatory language against a neighbor. Toth’s counsel

reiterated that Toth was merely repeating the language that was directed at her. At

this point, the trial court asked to hear from the officer who wrote the citation.

The police officer who signed the ticket provided the following

information at the pretrial:

[THE CITY]: Why did you give her this ticket?

***

THE POLICE OFFICER: * * * When we arrived to the original incident, it was neighbor troubles. Um, after getting the report, um, from both sides of the story, uh, we waited across the street for our sergeant. Ms. [Toth] did come out onto the sidewalk and in the street while the neighbors were outside. And we did have multiple joggers around, and did continue to scream and yell and then say —

THE COURT: Who did?

THE POLICE OFFICER: Ms. Toth did, and did say, uh, the — inappropriate word multiple times.

THE COURT: The ticket says “that we told her to stop.” And did you?

THE POLICE OFFICER: Yes, ma’am.

THE COURT: Personally you did?

THE COURT: And she continued?

THE POLICE OFFICER: Yes, ma’am. (Tr. 11-12.)

Following this exchange, the trial court found Toth guilty. Toth was

fined $75 and ordered to pay court costs. The fine was suspended.

Toth appealed, assigning the following four errors for our review. The

errors are verbatim as provided by Toth.

I. Trial Counsel and Court deprived the Appellant of her right to effective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment to The U.S. Constitution and under the Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 10.

II. Trial Court violated Appellant’s right to not be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb under the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution and under the Ohio Constitution.

III. The trial Court’s failure to obtain a waiver of the right to a jury trial, failure to explain the implications of a “no contest” plea, failure to control the courtroom dynamics, and which were highly prejudicial to the Appellant are grounds for reversal under the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to The U.S. Constitution and under the Ohio Constitution. The trial deprived the Appellant of her Constitutional rights by allowing the Prosecutor to testify to facts to allege facts he was not witness to supporting a jail sentence and constituting an “otherwise infamous crime” under the Ohio Constitution but charging a minor misdemeanor constituting prosecutorial corruption and a gross violation of justice.

IV. The Court abused its discretion and evidenced extreme bias in favor of the government against a protected-class citizen (sexual orientation, and gender) violating the Appellant’s civil rights under the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to The U.S. Constitution and under the Ohio Constitution.

After Toth filed her appeal, the city filed a motion to dismiss asking

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Blockburger v. United States
284 U.S. 299 (Supreme Court, 1931)
North Carolina v. Pearce
395 U.S. 711 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Strickland v. Washington
466 U.S. 668 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Parma v. Benedict
2013 Ohio 1990 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2013)
E. Cleveland v. Brown
2012 Ohio 4722 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2012)
State v. T.M.
2014 Ohio 5688 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2014)
State v. Anglen
2015 Ohio 4070 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2015)
Citta-Pietrolungo v. Pietrolungo, Unpublished Decision (9-15-2005)
2005 Ohio 4814 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Smith, Unpublished Decision (9-8-2005)
2005 Ohio 4702 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2005)
State v. Herman
286 N.E.2d 296 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1971)
State v. Gilbo
645 N.E.2d 69 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1994)
Vaughn v. Maxwell
209 N.E.2d 164 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1965)
State v. Clayton
402 N.E.2d 1189 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1980)
City of Cuyahoga Falls v. Bowers
459 N.E.2d 532 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1984)
State v. Smith
477 N.E.2d 1128 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1985)
State v. Bradley
538 N.E.2d 373 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1989)
State v. Golston
643 N.E.2d 109 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1994)
State v. Griggs
103 Ohio St. 3d 85 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2004)
State v. Jones
877 N.E.2d 677 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2007)
State v. Hale
892 N.E.2d 864 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2023 Ohio 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-v-toth-ohioctapp-2023.