Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

36 Ohio St. 3d 606

State v. Lanagan

Ohio Supreme Court

Decided March 8, 1988

Ohio Supreme Court · decided 1988-03-08

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[V]ague, unsubstantiated allegations * * * are insufficient on their face for a finding of bias or prejudice.”

quoted by 5 later decisions, including 156 Ohio St. 3d 1296 - Irvin v. Eichenberger (In re Jamison), 156 Ohio St. 3d 1303 - State v. Kanu (In re Beridon)

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1988-03-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 115 later decisions — most recently September 2019 · most notably In re Disqualification of Flanagan (2009), In re Disqualification of Baronzzi (2012)

115 state decisions

9401988199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Moyer, C.J.

¶1The affidavit of disqualification filed herein alleges a “dislike” of the defendant, Donald L. Lanagan, by Judge Robert D. Walker.

¶2This and the other vague, unsubstantiated allegations of the affidavit are insufficient on their face for a finding of bias or prejudice.

¶3During a trial of this case, No. 87-08981-CR in the Court of Common Pleas of Hancock County, beginning on January 14, 1988, a mistrial was declared; the trial was rescheduled for March 10, 1988. This affidavit was not filed until March 4, 1988, although there were no intervening circumstances. In the absence of extraordinary circumstances, an affidavit of disqualification should not be used to disqualify a judge after lengthy proceedings have transpired in a given case: “[A] party should not be permitted to participate in an action or proceedings to the extent that he is able to ascertain the attitude of the judge toward important aspects of his case and then avoid an adverse ruling by belatedly raising the issue of disqualification.” Annotation, Waiver or Loss of Right to Disqualify Judge by Participation in Proceedings — Modern State Criminal Cases (1984), 27 A.L.R. 4th 597, 605.

¶4For these reasons, the affidavit of disqualification is found not well-taken and is hereby dismissed.

/36/ohiost3d/606 · .json · Public domain