A new judge was appointed.
A new defense lawyer was, too.
Eleven other lawyers refused to represent 22-year-old Michael Andy, all citing conflict of interest, according to a memo filed by his original public defender.
What began as a simple bounced check to landlord Stephanie Goldsberry, the wife of Athens County Common Pleas Court Judge L. Alan Goldsberry, has turned into a felony legal case that is exposing the interconnectedness of lawyers and judges in a small town.
Even Judge Goldsberry said that when he was a defense attorney, he probably would not have represented a person asking him to impeach the credibility of a local judge's wife.
Now Andy's mother, Heather Strah, wants the case moved out of Athens because there is no way her son can get a fair trial when the victim is a local judge's wife, she said. The county prosecutor's office, which refused to take itself off the case because it would waste taxpayer money, is likely to fight that.Facts of the case
Strah said her son does not dispute the fact that he gave Stephanie Goldsberry, his former landlord, two checks ' one for $4,200 and one for $4,300 ' backed by inadequate funds. She said Andy thought he had student loan money to cover one of the checks, only to find later that his student loan check had been canceled because of an erroneous date on his application. Goldsberry never tried to cash the other check, Strah said.
Documents provided to The Post by Strah show Andy's student loan check was canceled after initial approval, but the same documents don't necessarily support her claims. According to Andy's indictment, he passed the first bad check on January 22, 2005, a month before his student loan application received initial approval. He passed the second bad check on May 1, 2005, according to the indictment ' more than a month after the application error had been corrected and his financial aid funds had been disbursed.
Strah said after her son received his student loan money, he paid to register for classes at Ohio University before he paid back his debt.
He definitely made a mistake
Strah said. To be honest with you when you're 20 years old he really wasn't thinking the way I would think as an adult.
Andy eventually left OU without graduating.
State of Ohio vs. Andy
Andy paid his $4,200 debt on May 28, 2005, but that payment came more than a month after Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren sent him a letter indicating he had seven days to make good on the payment of his check or face criminal charges. Andy bounced another check after receiving that letter.
Strah said because the debt is paid, she sees no reason why Warren is continuing to press charges. She said she thinks he is doing so on behalf of Judge Goldsberry and his wife.
Warren denied that and said his office is not a debt-collection agency. He said he has a duty to prosecute those who comply with the law only when they are facing an indictment. Andy was indicted May 9, 21 days before he made a payment to Stephanie Goldsberry.
He was given multiple chances to pay these checks. He was offered diversion
and he turned them down
Warren said. It's not the judge pushing it. It's not the victim pushing it. The case is called the state of Ohio vs. (Andy).
Conflicts of interest
The case began to get complicated on Feb. 10, 2006, when Andy's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Patricia Jamison, filed a motion to withdraw because of a conflict of interest. In that motion, she also asked for the prosecutor and Judge Michael Ward, Judge Goldsberry's counterpart in the Court of Common Pleas, to recuse themselves, and she wrote that 11 defense lawyers in the Athens area refused to represent Andy, all citing conflicts of interest.
Ward recused himself, and Morgan County Judge Dan Favreau was appointed to the case in May. Lawyer John G. Gosling, from McArthur, Ohio, replaced Jamison, who refused to comment for this story.
But the Athens County Prosecutor's office refused to step down because Warren perceived no conflicts of interest.
I don't work for the courts. The prosecutor's office is independent of the courts
he said. We're not treating him any differently than we treat any other bad check case.
Strah said she not only thinks Warren's office has a conflict of interest, but she thinks the case should be moved out of Athens County so Andy has a fairer shot at getting an adequate defense lawyer.
Nobody was willing to represent us
she said. Could I have paid an attorney from Cleveland? Yes
but they all look at me like 'Travel time alone will kill you.'
'This is not personal'
Local defense lawyer William Biddlestone said he couldn't understand why Andy could not find representation in Athens because he personally would not decline a case simply on the basis that a judge's wife was the victim. He also said Judge Goldsberry would likely not hold a grudge against a defense attorney who took the case.
We're professionals. This is not personal
he said. Doctors hang out with doctors. Bankers hang out with bankers. Lawyers hang out with lawyers. This is not unusual.
Biddlestone, who previously worked in Cleveland, said it is not uncommon in big cities or small cities for people in the legal community to ask one another for advice and have personal relationships. But when lawyers are on the opposite sides of the courtroom aisle, their personal relationships rarely come into play, he said.
But Biddlestone acknowledged that because he personally finds Stephanie Goldsberry to be credible, he might have a difficult time impeaching her credibility on the witness stand.
If he said the defense was that Stephanie was lying
that would be a tough one
he said.
And Judge Goldsberry himself said that when he was a defense attorney, he might be reluctant to take a case involving the judge's wife.
I know many years ago when I was in private practice in which someone had a case in which one of our trial judges was involved
