Tracie Hunter

Biography

Tracie Hunter (born Tracie-Marie Hunter; 1966) is an American pastor and former attorney and judge from Cincinnati, Ohio. She serves as minister at the Western Hills Church of the United Brethren in Christ and is best known for her contentious tenure as Hamilton County's juvenile court judge and the lengthy legal proceedings that followed. Hunter earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1993. In 2012, following a disputed 2010 election resolved by a federal court recount, she was sworn in as Hamilton County Juvenile Court judge—the first woman and first African American to hold that position. Her judgeship was marked by progressive reforms, including banning the shackling of juveniles in court and pursuing ex-felon voting rights, but also by controversy over media access restrictions and a backlog of undecided cases. In January 2014, a Hamilton County grand jury indicted Hunter on eight felony counts stemming from allegations of evidence tampering, forgery, theft in office, and nepotism related to her brother's employment at the court's Youth Center. The Ohio Supreme Court immediately disqualified her from the bench. A jury found Hunter guilty of one count — unlawful interest in a public contract — and deadlocked on the remaining charges; she was sentenced to six months in prison, which she ultimately served in 2020 after exhausting years of appeals, during which she was famously dragged from the courtroom by a bailiff for refusing to cooperate with court officers. Following her release, Hunter pursued reinstatement of her law license. In November 2023, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld an indefinite suspension, though it credited her nine years of interim suspension, making her immediately eligible to apply for reinstatement. A separate civil lawsuit stemming from the case resulted in a jury award later reversed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2024.

Bio from Wikipedia