With the state’s judicial age limits forcing retirement of Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Charles L. Patton Jr., two lawyers are eager to succeed him: Cleveland Municipal Court Senior Magistrate Khalilah Lawson, 39, and former Cleveland City Councilman TJ Dow, 51, who’s been a magistrate at the court since February 2024.

Lawson is well-versed in the law after spending five years as an assistant county prosecutor, then serving as personal bailiff to Common Pleas Judge Ashley Kilbane, as a Probate Court magistrate and, now, senior magistrate at Cleveland Municipal Court for the last three years. She understands the municipal court’s need to be a court of justice but also of fairness in sentencing and bail determinations for the often-disadvantaged defendants who come before it.

After Dow

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