A Hamilton County Probate Court judge has been reprimanded by the Ohio Supreme Court for making false statements on social media about a pending case he was presiding over.
In an opinion issued Wednesday, justices publicly reprimanded Judge Ralph Winkler for violating the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct.
The opinion was joined by Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy and Justices Patrick DeWine, Michael Donnelly and Melody Stewart. Justices Patrick Fischer, Jennifer Brunner and Joe Deters, the former Hamilton County prosecutor, did not participate in the case.
A complaint filed on Oct. 23 with the state Board of Professional Conduct says Winkler – who has been the county’s probate court judge since 2015 – violated Ohio’s rules of judicial conduct by posting on Facebook about a guardianship case he was overseeing.
Winkler, who also served on the common pleas and municipal courts, has been a judge for more than two decades.
The complaint surrounds two comments Winkler has acknowledged posting in October 2022.
According to the complaint, within a few hours of posting the comments, Winkler “realized he should not have made the comments and deleted them.”
He also handed control of the Facebook page to two staff members to prevent him from posting on his own, court filings state.
Winkler was responding to a man who was part of a guardianship case involving the man’s mother, who was diagnosed with dementia and placed in an assisted living facility. The case dates back more than a decade. But in 2017, Winkler upheld a decision by a magistrate, ordering that the mother’s former home be vacated and sold.
On Oct. 7, 2022, the man made a post on Facebook that Winkler considered a personal attack on a probate court magistrate, the complaint says.
Winkler's two responses said, in part:
- “You’re just mad because we had to intercede and take care of your mother when you did not… I am glad that a nice neighbor called senior services, and we got your mother into a safe, clean and healthy facility. God only knows what would have happened to her if a Good Samaritan neighbor had not reported this elder abuse The home photos in evidence don’t lie.”
- “You lost your case because you were wrong… You were wrong for not taking proper care of your mother” and “when you did make it to court you often reeked of alcohol.”
Winkler acknowledged during his disciplinary proceedings that the online statements were “incorrect, misleading, and unsupported by the record,” according to court documents. The board found that while Winkler didn’t intentionally post inaccurate statements, he did not review the record to refresh his memory about the case.
Winkler also authorized an assistant court administrator to speak with a Richland Source reporter about the case, and that administrator likewise repeated untrue claims.
The judge recused himself from the guardianship proceedings in August 2023. He also made an on-the-record apology to the family.
“Although Winkler’s misconduct consists of two isolated events, he committed multiple rule violations and caused harm to vulnerable victims,” the court’s opinion states. The justices added that Winkler is “highly unlikely” to engage in similar misconduct.
"Judge Winkler respects the Court’s decision and is ready to put this matter behind him," his attorney, Lisa Zaring, said in an emailed statement.
Enquirer staff writer Kevin Grasha contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Justices reprimand Hamilton County probate judge over Facebook comments about court case
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