A Montgomery County judge is the focus of a new ethics complaint that accuses him of improperly releasing a prison inmate after repeatedly talking about the case privately with the inmate’s mother for more than a year.
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The copy of the complaint is from the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct, which deals with ethics and professional conduct violations for lawyers and judges in the state.
As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, it’s aimed at Judge Richard Skelton whose office is at the Montgomery County Courthouse.
The complaint says the judge knows the inmate’s mother because she worked at his doctor’s office.
Aaron Xox pleaded guilty in 2020. He admitted to charges including aggravated robbery, felonious assault, and escape after he knocked a Montgomery County deputy to the ground, jumped in the driver’s seat of his cruiser, and ran over his arm while taking off from the scene.
The next month, a judge sent Cox to prison at his sentencing. What happened in the years that followed is the subject of this new ethics complaint.