Judge William T. Marshall Kicked Out of Hill View for Bizarre Behavior
There was an odd incident at Hill View Retirement Center that has put controversy-plagued former Scioto County Judge William T. Marshall back in the news.
There was a concern this weekend about an elderly woman at Hill View Retirement Center being harassed. 911 dispatch received the call. During that initial conversation, the caller reported the harassment and then also asked that the suspect return a car to the caller.
It was requested that the grandson of the woman (all Marshall’s family members) be “escorted off the property and tell him to take his dad’s vehicle back to him.”
The call was handled by two Portsmouth police officers. The call was then determined to have been made by former Judge Marshall. In their investigation, they found that the elderly woman wasn’t being harassed.
According to Marshall’s daughter, he has deteriorated mentally, so she is responsible for him. She presented police officers with a power of attorney. The police report noted that the director of Hill View warned Marshall would be permanently banned if he returned to the property.
Outrageous Conduct on the Bench
(as reported by Cyn Mackley)
On April 27, 2018, Marshall was charged with professional misconduct related to his behavior when his 17-year-old daughter was pulled over for speeding and for driving with expired tags.
Marshall was not happy about his daughter being treated like everybody else who gets pulled over. By his own admission, he worked to make sure the case was heard in Scioto, not Jackson County. Then he approached an assistant prosecutor and said:
“I didn’t like the trooper. He didn’t listen to me. There used to be a code in this county—I’m a judge and he shouldn’t have written my daughter [a ticket].”
Marshall continued to interfere in the case and threatened the trooper.
“If he cuts my little girl, I’m going to cut him.” Marshall stated that Stuart had been unprofessional and had shown him no professional courtesy.
He also told other lawyers he would hold the trooper’s action against the entire Ohio Highway Patrol. Later while presiding at a trial, Marshall grilled a state trooper about the accuracy of his radar gun. Unbelievably, he then threw down a legal pad and walked off the bench.
That was enough for Ohio’s Supreme Court to suspend Marshall’s license to practice law for six months in 2019. He retired just before the suspension went into effect.
Drinking and Human Trafficking
Shortly after that suspension, Marshall’s name was prominently featured in an article about human trafficking in Scioto County.
His family then revealed that he’d been hospitalized multiple times for alcoholism. It was also alleged that he presided over cases while drunk. That led to a massive review of his rulings that still continue.
