ELYRIA – Lorain County Common Pleas Court Judge James Burge had sent a court order from the judges to county commissioners July 24 to hand over the keys of all the doors on the second floor of the old Lorain County Courthouse. But on July 25, County Commissioner Tom Williams said that the commissioners did not hand them over. Burge had ordered them to turn them all over by noon July 25. Williams said that he believes that the judges don’t have the right to mandate that they give them the space. Certain areas of the courthouse are locked, Williams said, but some areas on the second floor are used. On July 24, a locksmith took the commissioners’ lock off one of the doors and put another one on for the judges, Williams said. ‘I’m not sure if this is legal or not,’ he said. ‘I’m willing to work with them and resolve this issue, but we gotta have notification.’ The commissioners now have legal counsel in the old courthouse dispute, but Williams said he would still rather not have representation and waste more tax payers money. County Administrator Jim Cordes said during the afternoon of July 25 that the locks are now all changed on the second floor of the old courthouse. ‘(Burge) can do anything he wants, when he wants, how he wants,’ Cordes said, citing how Burge acts. ‘This conduct is so outrageous. I mean, it started with the one office yesterday (July 24) and ended today with the breaking of all our locks.’ At the time Cordes was contacted, he was in the middle of writing a letter to the court and said he wasn’t sure when he would have the letter done. ‘When you deal with a mad man, you can’t be a mad man,’ he angrily said. Burge could not be reached for comment July 25. In June, the six Common Pleas Court general division judges have wanted to come up with a solution at the old courthouse, where the Adult Probation Department is housed as well as the county’s crime lab. Five of the six judges went to the commissioners meeting June 11 and expressed their frustration and anger over the conditions inside the building.
