Judge Richard Lemons of Portsmouth, OH; scofflaw, loser

The state of Ohio presented James T. Jameson with a law license in 1996 after he graduated from the University of Detroit School of Law.

Disciplinary Counsel of the Ohio Supreme Court found Dick guilty of engaging in the following misconduct.

• Dick improperly involved himself personally in a case of a father of five children who had been arrested on a charge of corrupting a juvenile with drugs and was being held in the Scioto County Jail
• At the time the father had custody of his three oldest children
• After hearing a one-sided report from members of his staff, Dick returned to his chambers and issued an order upon his own motion and without a case number, finding that two of the children in the father’s home were in imminent danger and ordered place the children in child services temporary custody
• Court staff notified child services of Dick’s order but did not notify the father or the children’s mother, whose notification is required by statute
• Dick and presided over the probable cause hearing, where no evidence was presented about the conditions of the father’s home
• At the probable cause hearing, Dick failed to inform the father and mother that he had personally visited and inspected the father’s home prior to the hearing
• Dick continued to preside over the hearings involving custody of the children in 2017 and 2019 and never informed the parties or their counsel he had personally visited their home
• Engaged in multiple violations of the Code of Judicial Conduct
• Failed to disqualify himself from any proceeding in which his impartiality might be reasonably questioned
• Usurped child services’ legal authority by disregarding its decision and conducting his own investigation
• Violated the rule against failing to apply the law (scofflaw)
• Failed to perform his duties fairly and impartially

As a direct consequence of his misconduct, the apologists for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Ohio Supreme Court punished Dick by gifting him with a complimentary reprimand.

As we speak (ca. October 2022), Dick practices his so-called brand of jurisprudence as a Scioto County Court of Common Pleas Judge in Portsmouth, Ohio.