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Akron Muni Judge Ron Cable already tackling big problems
TRACEY BLAIR
Legal News Reporter
Published: April 6, 2018
Ron Cable thought there would be a big learning curve when he became judge of Akron Municipal Court.
But the 44-year-old West Akron resident has hit the ground running since taking office Dec. 11.
“I seem to be catching on fairly quickly,” he said. “I have a good staff. We have a lot of interesting cases and a lot of interesting people. It’s been a satisfying experience so far. It’s never boring, that’s for sure.”
The judge said his previous experiences while a Summit County Domestic Relations Court magistrate for 16 years taught him that justice is best served with a mix of compassion and fairness.
“Depending on the situation, my thing is that all people need to be held accountable. But on the other hand, we have a unique situation where we’re able to help a lot of people too, and try and prevent them from making the same offense over and over again,” he said.
For instance, the judge said he has encountered numerous repeat criminal trespass charges as a result of the homeless staying in parking garages and other buildings.
“I mean, it’s been a cold winter,” he said. “They’re not able to be there, but it’s hard. We try to use diversion. These are people who really shouldn’t be spending time in jail. We don’t have the room for someone who’s trying to get warm in a parking garage and not committing any other type of crime. And fines? For one thing, they have no money. So I don’t really believe in setting people up to fail. I could give them a $200 fine. But if they had $200 they could go get a motel room. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.
“So sometimes I’ll try to get them to do maybe a little community service work. Other times, they’ve already spent a day or two in jail so they’ll just get credit for that and we’ll give them the information on where they can get food and clothing and homeless shelters in the area. We do try to lend a helping hand. I wouldn’t want anyone to freeze to death.”
OVIs, petty thefts related to drug addiction and people driving under suspension also make up a large portion of his docket.
Judge Cable said he has been working with the court’s probation department, which has a DUS program.
“The goal is for them to get their license back so they don’t keep driving without one or on a suspended one,” he said. “They have to come in for regular appointments, work on paying reinstatement fees, fines and costs. And at the same time, all the work is going toward them getting their license so they can drive.
“I’ve been trying to work on this driving issue. We started a program here for people who have fallen into a cycle of getting a ticket, not paying the ticket, losing their driver’s license, getting an offense for driving with no license and then another offense, and the odds are stacked up against them. The solution is to get these people to be valid drivers with insurance, so we’re working on that.”
Judge Cable, who founded the therapy dog program at Domestic Relations Court, still sees a lot of domestic violence cases. Those cases have been special to him since his time handling civil protection orders.
“Domestic violence cases are challenging,” he said. “They take a lot of time. Sometimes it’s an isolated incident, and people recognize their mistakes, change their behavior and you never have any other problems. Then you have the traditional cases. Sometimes they seem like hopeless situations.
“There are situations where someone is the batterer and someone is the victim, and it’s hard to separate the two. We’ve helped a lot of people break away from these types of relationships.
“I think it’s something you’ve got to be patient with. The whole goal of the program here is to work with the defendant to try to get them to really recognize what they’re doing and to change the behavior. I’ve always liked working with families. Sometimes there is light at the tunnel.”
After previously seeking judgeships in Summit County Domestic Relations Court in 2016 and Common Pleas Court in 2014, the Democrat was elected Municipal Court judge after ousting Republican incumbent Jason Adams in November.
“This has been kind of a blessing in disguise for me because I love the staff here at the court and really like the work and the subject matter,” said Judge Cable. “It just took a little longer than I thought it would to win a judgeship. I’ve missed Domestic Relations Court, but I really enjoy this too.”
Summit County Domestic Relations Judge John P. Quinn said he enjoyed working with Judge Cable.
“I think he’ll do an outstanding job,” Judge Quinn said. “He was a truly caring magistrate, and I think he’ll bring that caring into Akron Municipal Court.”
Akron Municipal Court Judge Jon A. Oldham is Judge Cable’s office neighbor on the ninth floor.
“Judge Cable seems to have an open mind,” Judge Oldham said. “He is thoughtful and sensible in how he approaches matters.”
A long-term goal of Judge Cable’s is to look into solutions for the human trafficking problem.
Later this month, Judge Cable will be headed to Columbus with Presiding Akron Municipal Court Judge Kathryn Michael and the head of the court’s probation department to watch Franklin County Municipal Court’s human trafficking court.
“They’re known all over the country for the work that they’ve done there,” Judge Cable said. “We’re going to go down and take a look at that program. They’ ve had a really successful rate as far as recidivism.
“A lot of the trafficking we see is a man taking advantage of a woman either to feed a drug addiction or sex for sale. We do have an issue with those types of cases. I’ve already had four or five. You have a situation where the defendant is really a victim of a crime themselves.
“I don’t know if we’ll have a specialized docket, but at the very minimum we’ll have a screening process so we can at least try to make referrals for victims of human trafficking.”
Judge Cable, who has also been a juvenile court magistrate, said he has always been interested in the law.
“I took some classes in college, enjoyed it, decided to give law school a try and it worked out well for me,” he said.
Judge Cable and his sister grew up in Wintersville, a small town in the Ohio Valley. His father worked at a steel mill and his mother was a medical technologist.
After majoring in political science at the University of Akron, he studied at the Capital University School of Law before graduating from Akron School of Law.
He also worked as a case manager assisting federal prison inmates with reestablishing family relationships and gaining employment upon their release.
In addition, he has worked in the juvenile correction system, for Legal Aid and as an attorney in private practice.
He and his wife, Irina, a project manager for an IT department, have three children, a 20-year-old daughter and two sons, ages 12 and 19.
In his spare time, he likes to go fishing and travel.
Judge Cable looks at his new position as an opportunity to help people.
“There are always new, innovative ways to handle these cases,” he said. “We do have people who come in here and just don’t care. They go to jail because that’s the only solution if they don’t try to help themselves. But we have a lot of poor souls as well who really have the cards stacked up against them.”