Title: Keith v. Bobby

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Cite as Keith v. Bobby, 117 Ohio St.3d 470, 2008-Ohio-1443.] 
 
 
KEITH, APPELLANT, v. BOBBY, WARDEN, APPELLEE. 
[Cite as Keith v. Bobby, 117 Ohio St.3d 470, 2008-Ohio-1443.] 
Habeas corpus — Sentences not void — Incarceration for multiple crimes — 
Adequate remedy by appeal — Writ denied. 
(No. 2007-1982 ─ Submitted March 25, 2008 ─ Decided April 2, 2008.) 
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Portage County,  
No. 2007-P-0027, 2007-Ohio-5210. 
__________________ 
 
Per Curiam. 
{¶ 1} This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing a habeas corpus 
petition.  Because the petition fails to state a viable habeas corpus claim, we 
affirm. 
{¶ 2} In 1995, Judge Daniel Gaul of the Cuyahoga County Court of 
Common Pleas convicted appellant, Jeffrey C. Keith, upon a jury verdict, of five 
counts of arson and one count of grand theft of a motor vehicle and sentenced him 
to an aggregate prison term of 15 to 25 years.  The court of appeals affirmed the 
judgment.  State v. Keith (Mar. 13, 1997), Cuyahoga App. No. 69267, 1997 WL 
113755. 
{¶ 3} In 1997, Judge Joseph E. Cirigliano of the Cuyahoga County Court 
of Common Pleas convicted Keith, upon a jury verdict, of three counts of theft, 
one count of Medicaid fraud, one count of securing writings by deception, one 
count of forgery, and one count of uttering a forged instrument and sentenced him 
to an aggregate prison term of 10 1/2 years, to be served consecutively to his prior 
sentence.  The court of appeals affirmed the judgment.  State v. Keith (Oct. 22, 
1998), Cuyahoga App. No. 72275, 1998 WL 742172. 
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{¶ 4} In 1999, Judge Cirigliano, in the Cuyahoga County Court of 
Common Pleas, convicted Keith, upon a jury verdict, of two counts of uttering a 
forged instrument, one count of attempted aggravated theft, one count of 
tampering with evidence, one count of grand theft, and one count of forgery and 
sentenced him to an aggregate prison term of five years.  The court of appeals 
affirmed.  State v. Keith (Aug. 17, 2000), Cuyahoga App. Nos. 76469, 76479, and 
76610, 2000 WL 1176886. 
{¶ 5} In 1998, Keith filed a document in his first criminal case 
requesting a hearing under Crim.R. 33(B), which the state opposed as a motion 
for new trial.  In 2002, Keith filed a motion for leave to file a motion for new trial, 
and the state responded with a motion to dismiss.  Judge Cirigliano granted the 
state’s motion and dismissed Keith’s motion for leave.  The court of appeals 
dismissed Keith’s appeal because Judge Cirigliano had not been properly assigned 
to hear the postconviction motions: 
{¶ 6} “Since Judge Cirigliano had no authority to enter the order 
granting the state’s motion to dismiss, the judgment is void.  It necessarily follows 
that no appeal can be taken from a void judgment.”  State v. Keith, Cuyahoga 
App. No. 81125, 2002-Ohio-7250, ¶ 8. 
{¶ 7} On Keith’s motion, the court later dismissed his appeals from 
postconviction rulings by Judge Cirigliano in the other two criminal cases. 
{¶ 8} In April 2007, Keith filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for 
Portage County for a writ of habeas corpus to compel appellee, Trumbull 
Correctional Institution Warden David Bobby, to immediately release him from 
prison.  Keith claimed that his convictions and sentences were void because, 
based on the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals’ rulings, neither Judge 
Cirigliano nor Judge Gaul had jurisdiction to convict and sentence him.  Keith 
further claimed that because no judge had been properly assigned to his criminal 
cases, he lacked an adequate remedy at law to compel rulings on his pending 
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motions in those cases.  Keith finally claimed a pattern of corrupt activity, 
including fraud, by the state in the prosecution of his criminal cases and the use of 
perjured testimony.  Warden Bobby filed a motion to dismiss. 
{¶ 9} In September 2007, the court of appeals granted the warden’s 
motion and dismissed Keith’s petition for failure to state a claim upon which 
relief can be granted. 
{¶ 10} In his appeal as of right, Keith asserts that the Court of Appeals for 
Portage County erred in dismissing his petition.  Dismissal under Civ.R. 12(B)(6) 
for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is appropriate if, after 
all factual allegations are presumed true and all reasonable inferences are made in 
Keith’s favor, it appears beyond doubt that he could prove no set of facts entitling 
him to the requested extraordinary relief in habeas corpus.  State ex rel. Turner v. 
Houk, 112 Ohio St.3d 561, 2007-Ohio-814, 862 N.E.2d 104, ¶ 5.  For the 
following reasons, the court of appeals’ denial of Keith’s habeas corpus petition 
was proper. 
{¶ 11} First, as the court of appeals correctly concluded, the appellate 
judgment in Keith, Cuyahoga App. No. 81125, 2002-Ohio-7250, merely held that 
Judge Cirigliano’s order granting a motion to dismiss Keith’s motion for leave to 
file a motion for new trial in his first criminal case was void; the court of appeals 
did not hold that Judge Gaul’s sentence of Keith to an aggregate prison term of 15 
to 25 years in that criminal case was void. 
{¶ 12} Second, because Keith’s initial sentence is not void and has not 
expired, Keith is not entitled to a writ of habeas corpus.  “[H]abeas corpus is 
proper in the criminal context only if the petitioner is entitled to immediate 
release from prison or some other physical confinement.”  Scanlon v. Brunsman, 
112 Ohio St.3d 151, 2006-Ohio-6522, 858 N.E.2d 411, ¶ 4. 
{¶ 13} Third, even assuming the invalidity of Keith’s second and third 
criminal sentences, he is not entitled to the writ, because he is still properly 
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incarcerated on his first sentence.  “Where a petitioner is incarcerated for several 
crimes, the fact that the sentencing court may have lacked jurisdiction to sentence 
him on one of the crimes does not warrant his release in habeas corpus.”  Swiger 
v. Seidner (1996), 74 Ohio St.3d 685, 687, 660 N.E.2d 1214; see also Haynes v. 
Voorhies, 110 Ohio St.3d 243, 2006-Ohio-4355, 852 N.E.2d 1198, ¶ 7. 
{¶ 14} Fourth, as we held in another writ case involving Keith, “he has or 
had an adequate remedy by appeal from [the trial court’s] rulings to raise his 
claim that Judge Gaul and Judge Cirigliano were improperly assigned to his 
criminal cases.”  State ex rel. Keith v. McMonagle, 106 Ohio St.3d 61, 2005-
Ohio-3669, 831 N.E.2d 433, ¶ 7; see also State ex rel. Key v. Spicer (2001), 91 
Ohio St.3d 469, 746 N.E.2d 1119 (“a claim of improper assignment of a judge can 
generally be adequately raised by way of appeal”); State ex rel. Berger v. 
McMonagle (1983), 6 Ohio St.3d 28, 30, 6 OBR 50, 451 N.E.2d 225 (mandamus 
and prohibition are not substitutes for appeal to contest alleged improper 
assignment of judge). 
{¶ 15} Fifth, Keith’s claims of fraud upon the court, prosecutorial 
misconduct, and perjured testimony are not cognizable in habeas corpus.  
Williamson v. Williams, 103 Ohio St.3d 25, 2004-Ohio-4111, 812 N.E.2d 1283, ¶ 
3 (prosecutorial misconduct and perjured testimony); Howard v. Randle, 95 Ohio 
St.3d 281, 2002-Ohio-2122, 767 N.E.2d 268, ¶ 6 (fraud). 
{¶ 16} Finally, insofar as Keith requests rulings on various motions, he 
has either received them, see Keith, 106 Ohio St.3d 61, 2005-Ohio-3669, 831 
N.E.2d 433, ¶ 6, or should use procedendo to obtain them.  See State ex rel. Bd. of 
State Teachers Retirement Sys. of Ohio v. Davis, 113 Ohio St.3d 410, 2007-Ohio-
2205, 865 N.E.2d 1289, ¶ 34 (“procedendo is the appropriate remedy when a 
court has either refused to render a judgment or has unnecessarily delayed 
proceeding to judgment”).  The mere failure to timely rule on postjudgment 
motions does not entitle Keith to release from prison. 
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{¶ 17} Based on the foregoing, we affirm the court of appeals’ dismissal 
of Keith’s petition because it failed to state a viable habeas corpus claim.  This 
holding renders moot Keith’s motion for summary judgment and the warden’s 
motions to strike. 
Judgment affirmed. 
 
MOYER, 
C.J., 
and 
PFEIFER, 
LUNDBERG 
STRATTON, 
O’CONNOR, 
LANZINGER, and CUPP, JJ., concur. 
 
O’DONNELL, J., not participating. 
__________________ 
 
Jeffrey C. Keith, pro se. 
 
Marc Dann, Attorney General, and Diane Mallory, Assistant Attorney 
General, for appellee. 
______________________