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Local students saw accused ex-judge in appeals hearing last year

Local students saw Mason in appeals hearing last year

By JOHN SEEWER

Associated Press

and Janelle Patterson

The Marietta Times

A former Cleveland-area judge who spent nine months in prison for beating his wife at the time is now a suspect in her stabbing death over the weekend and is likely to be charged.

Tuesday Washington County social studies teachers discussed the case after local students recalled the judge’s appeals hearing before the Ohio Supreme Court, held in Marietta last year.

“We had our kids there that day watching the hearing,” explained John Bostic, a social studies teacher at Fort Frye High School. “And Monday I had two kids who had me in government last year come running to me asking if I heard about the former judge from the court case we watched.”

Lance Mason’s disbarment was one of the cases the Ohio Supreme Court reviewed at Marietta High School during a traveling education day held in the auditorium in October 2017. Mason was ultimately barred from practicing law indefinitely after a decision by the court concluded that case in December 2017.

Police said in court documents the ex-judge, who also served in the state legislature, was fleeing the scene of a homicide in which he was the suspect when he slammed his SUV into a patrol cruiser.

Mason was charged Monday with felonious assault in the crash, but he has not been charged in his former wife’s death.

Police in Shaker Heights, a Cleveland suburb, said Monday that additional charges will be brought against Mason in connection with the death of his former wife.

Mason was taken into custody after officers found Aisha Fraser dead on Saturday, according to police in Shaker Heights, a Cleveland suburb. Messages seeking comment were left with an attorney who has represented Mason in the past.

In a 911 call, Mason’s sister described how he was covered in blood and pacing inside his home. “He stabbed her and he said she’s dead,” Lynn Mason told a dispatcher.

Both Mason and a police officer responding to a reported domestic dispute were injured when Mason’s SUV hit the cruiser near the scene of the fatal stabbing, police said.

Mason ran from the crash, but was taken into custody, police told Cleveland.com. He was being held without bond.

The Ohio Supreme Court last year indefinitely suspended Mason’s law license after he was sentenced to prison for assaulting Fraser inside a car while their two young daughters sat in the back seat.

“Talking about it with former students they immediately felt empathy for the family, and wondered what the effect on his children would be,” noted Bostic. “We’ve talked about how sometimes rehabilitation doesn’t work. It was refreshing though to see these students from last year still be engaged and keeping up with current events. Sometimes you wonder if it sinks in or not.”

Likewise, at Marietta High School J.D. Secrest, social studies and government teacher, said the case will come up as he takes his class through the state court system curriculum.

“We’re getting ready to talk about the trial court system and appeals and this way it makes it more interesting as we talk about that process,” said Secrest.

Authorities say the couple was separated at the time in 2014 and that Mason repeatedly struck and bit his wife. He pleaded guilty to felonious assault and domestic violence.

Mason was a judge at the time of his arrest and had been on the bench six years. Before that, he was elected to both the Ohio House and Senate.

Mason was hired last year by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to work in the city’s minority business development office.

Jackson said he fired Mason after he was taken into custody Saturday. The mayor on Monday defended his decision to hire Mason despite his past problems.

Officials said Fraser worked in Shaker Heights Schools for 16 years and most recently taught at Woodbury Elementary School. Several hundred people gathered at the school Monday night for a vigil, WKYC-TV reported.

Shaker Heights Superintendent Stephen Wilkins said in a statement that Fraser was a devoted mother and a committed teacher.

Associated Press writer Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus contributed.

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