Ex-judge gets 60 days and 6 months of house arrest for prostitution and court records convictions
Convicted of misdemeanors last month for falsifying court records and having sex with prostitutes but acquitted of felony charges, a Bedford, Ohio, municipal court judge retired last week and has now been sentenced to a 60-day jail term and six months of house arrest.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan also imposed two years of probation on Harry Jacob III and a maximum $2,500 fine.
The prosecution had argued that Jacob should spend a year behind bars and the defense sought probation, according to the Plain Dealer and WJW, a Fox affiliate.
Fighting back tears, the 56-year-old apologized in court to his family, Bedford court staff and any woman whose drug addiction might potentially have been promoted by his conduct. He is also appealing the convictions.
Calling the trial “a public flogging,” his lawyer, David Grant, pointed to his client’s leadership roles in his church and a youth soccer league and said Jacob had offered early on to take a plea to essentially the same charges on which he was convicted.
Assistant County Prosecutor Matthew Meyer argued that Jacob had abused his judicial power and damaged the reputation of the legal profession.
He’s coming to you, another judge, and asking you to go light on him,” Meyer told Corrigan.
“Now that it’s time to face the punishment, he doesn’t want to subject himself to the same punishment other people would get, and that’s the inside of a jail cell.”
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge convicted of prostitution misdemeanors, but acquitted of felony charges”
