Federal judge robbed at gunpoint at home; 3 men arrested
A federal judge and her well-known ex-attorney husband were robbed at gunpoint at their suburban Cincinnati home Friday night, authorities said.
Police reports say Judge Susan Dlott, who sits in the Southern District of Ohio, and her husband, Stan Chesley, were held at gunpoint after three suspects kicked open a locked basement door in their Indian Hill home, according to the Associated Press and WCPO.
Lt. Rich White of the Indian Hill Rangers police department said Chesley confronted the robbers at one point and was pushed down a flight of stairs, the AP article reports. It does not appear from news accounts, however, that either Chesley or Dlott suffered any major physical injury.
The couple had been taken by the robbers to their garage, where the trio may have intended to steal their vehicle, White said. However, the robbers fled without the vehicle when they were startled by a noise, and Dlott and Chesley went into nearby woods and proceeded to a neighbor’s home, calling police for help at about 10:40 p.m.
Items allegedly taken from the couple by the three robbers included jewelry, fur coats, credit cards and identification.
Police said suspects Terry Jackson, 21, and 20-year-olds Darrell Kinney and Demetrius Williams (whose last name was also given as Ivory) were initially pulled over in a traffic stop later the same evening after their vehicle rolled past a stop sign. They were charged with aggravated robbery and abduction after items from the robbery were allegedly found in their vehicle.
Authorities believe the couple was targeted for the robbery because the size of their home, rather than because of their prominence in the legal community, the WCPO article says.
Joe Deters, who serves as Hamilton County prosecutor, told the Cincinnati Enquirer that he will meet with federal authorities this week to decide how best to pursue the case.
Except for murderers, armed home invaders “may be the worst type of offender,” Deters said. “They are willing to go into someone’s home, a locked home, with weapons. It’s as bad as it gets.”
Dlott and Chesley married in 1991, when he was at the height of his career as a tort lawyer. Chesley helped win a $200 million settlement in fen-phen litigation in 2001, but the victory eventually led to his disbarment.
