In re Disqualification of DeWine

{¶ 1} Thomas R. Koustmer, attorney for the defendant, has filed an affidavit with the clerk of this court under R.C. 2701.03 seeking to disqualify Judge Pat DeWine from presiding over any further proceedings in case No. B 1103329-1, now pending on an alleged community-control-sanction violation in the Court of Common Pleas of Hamilton County.

{¶ 2} Koustmer alleges that Judge DeWine is biased and prejudiced against defendant Neeco McCants. This bias, according to Koustmer, has resulted in Judge DeWine’s forming a “conclusion of guilt” prior to the hearing on McCants’s alleged community-control…