Federal Judge Robbed At Gunpoint In Home Invasion
Federal Judge Susan Dlott and her husband were robbed by three gunmen who broke into their mansion in a Cincinnati, Ohio, suburb.
Yesterday, a grand jury indicted three suspects in the home invasion on a variety of felonies including aggravated burglary, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping. Each suspect is being held on a $2.5 million bond and could face up to 100 years in prison if convicted.
The trio allegedly followed the couple home from a restaurant last Friday night after spotting their luxury car and broke in through a basement door. Authorities believe the crime was a burglary and had nothing to do with her status as a judge. “Police said they believed the men targeted the home because it was large and not because of Chesley or Dlott,” WCPO-TV in Cincinnati reported about the mansion that was originally purchased for $8 million.
3 men accused of breaking into Stan Chesley and Judge Susan Dlott’s home appear in court https://t.co/CZ8gz2VqNx pic.twitter.com/n6BQcUQDsZ
— Cheryl Vari (@cherylvari) December 7, 2015
Dlott is the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and was originally nominated to the federal bench by President Bill Clinton in 1995. Her husband is prominent personal injury lawyer Stan Chesley, 79, who was a major campaign fundraiser for Clinton and the Democrats.
“Short of murder and rape, this is as serious a case as we get,” Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters told Cincinnati.com. “People who are willing to enter someone else’s home with guns, knowing full well that the homeowners are present, and terrorize and rob the innocent homeowners are some of the most dangerous types of criminals we encounter.”
Dlott, 66, ran through the woods to a neighbor’s home in her nightgown and called 911 to report that “three black men with guns” were committing a home invasion at her residence and that her husband was still there. Listen to the 911 call embedded below. She also identified herself as a federal judge and asked that the dispatcher to notify the U.S. Marshals service. Chesley allegedly was pushed down a flight of stars in the incident that occurred in the suburb of Indian Hill. He suffered a concussion and broken bones in the nightmarish encounter.
The American Thinker claims that Judge Dlott presided over a key 2002 case in Cincinnati that outlawed racial profiling by the city’s police department under a consent decree, which is more fully described in this Cincinnati Enquirer article published in that time frame.
Cops in nearby Maderia, Ohio, pulled over the suspects when they ran a stop sign about an hour later, and allegedly discovered stolen property, including fur coats and other possessions, in the vehicle. One of the suspects allegedly kicked out the window of a police cruiser and tried to flee after he was cuffed and put in the squad car. He faces additional charges on the escape attempt.
Multiple media outlets identify the suspects as Terry Jackson, 21, Darrell Kinney, 21, and Demetrius Williams, 20.
According to another neighbor in the upscale enclave about the judge, “If we lost her, which we would have but for her smart thinking… and a few coincidences, we would’ve lost one of the great civil rights judges of our time. It’s because of Susan Dlott that we have community policing here and modeled across the nation. She structured that agreement,” WCPO-TV reported.
“The robbery marks just the latest high-profile episode involving Chesley, a former star plaintiffs lawyer who more recently came under intense scrutiny over his role in class action litigation related to the diet pill fen-phen,” The American Lawyer explained about the judge’s high-profile spouse. “In 2013, Chesley was disbarred in Kentucky when the state’s highest court concluded that he had taken an unreasonably high fee award of $20 million in the fen-phen litigation. Chesley had also faced discipline in Ohio, but he permanently retired before being disbarred there.”
[Image via Shutterstock]
