Frank J . Battisti Frank James Battisti ( October 4 , 1922 – October 19 , 1994 ) was an American jurist who served as the 21st district judge for the Northern District of Ohio , between 1961 and 1990 . He spent 22 of his 31 years on the District Court as chief judge , replacing Judge Girard E . Kalbfleisch on August 4 , 1969 . Judge Battisti ' s career featured groundbreaking — and sometimes controversial — rulings , notably his finding in 1976 that the Cleveland public school system was guilty of racial segregation . Two years earlier , in 1974 , he dismissed a case against eight members of the Ohio Army National Guard accused of violating the civil rights of four Kent State University students who were shot dead in 1970 . In the 1980s , he presided over a high - profile case involving Cleveland autoworker John Demjanjuk , who was deported amid charges that he committed war crimes in Nazi - occupied Eastern Europe . During his decades as a jurist , Judge Battisti was honored by various professional and civic organizations , but he was also a target of criticism . Early years . He was born to Eugene and Jennie ( Dalesandro ) Battisti , in the Hazelton district of Youngstown , Ohio , a steel - production center near the Pennsylvania border . After graduating from Youngstown ' s East High School , Battisti served as an army combat engineer in the U . S . Army during World War II . He was later commissioned as an officer in military intelligence . Upon his return from Europe , he studied law at Ohio State University and Harvard Law School . Battisti was a civilian attorney for the Army between 1951 and 1952 , taught law at Youngstown State University from 1952 to 1954 , and was assistant city law director of Youngstown between 1954 and 1958 . Battisti maintained a private practice between 1952 and 1958 . He served as a judge on the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas between 1959 and 1961 . Then , on September 22 , 1961 , President John F . Kennedy appointed him as a district judge of the Northern District of Ohio . He was , at 39 years of age , the youngest federal judge in the country . Battisti became chief judge on August 3 , 1969 ( Saint Nicodemus Day ) . Judicial controversies . On the bench , Judge Battisti earned a reputation as a jurist who was willing to take on the most controversial cases . Some of his rulings generated heated debate , including his acquittal of eight former Ohio National Guardsmen implicated in the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University on May 4 , 1970 . As his obituary in " The New York Times " stated , " The Kent State case came to an abrupt halt when [ Judge Battisti ] dismissed it on the ground that Government prosecutors had failed to prove ' beyond a reasonable doubt ' that guardsmen had willfully intended to deprive the students of their rights " . He is primarily remembered , however , for his historic ruling in " Reed v . Rhodes " , which found that the Cleveland school district had violated the law by practicing racial segregation . The 1976 ruling came three years after the filing of a class action in the U . S . District Court . Judge Battisti ' s comprehensive order for desegregation featured 14 components , including a provision reassigning students to achieve integration . This component precipitated an outcry among local opponents of " court - ordered busing . " While Judge Battisti was lauded by supporters for what they termed as his courage and fortitude , he faced criticism from the Cleveland Board of Education and segments of the larger community . His landmark ruling in the Cleveland desegregation case later prompted fellow Youngstown native Judge Nathaniel R . Jones , of the 6th U . S . Circuit Court of Appeals , to characterize Judge Battisti as " an unlikely hero " of the civil rights movement . Judge Jones said , " He withstood much of the hostility and acrimony , bitterness and ostracism of the community in order to be true to his oath and the Constitution " . Even critics of the ruling were disinclined to question Judge Battisti ' s motives . Colleagues described him as a deeply religious man whose abhorrence of racial injustice was profound and sincere . In the decade of the 1980s , Judge Battisti found himself , once again , at the center of controversy . In 1986 , he ordered the deportation to Israel of Ukrainian immigrant John Demjanjuk , whose conviction on charges of war crimes was later overturned by an Israeli court . The case , which garnered national and international media attention , proved to be an unusually protracted one . An obituary noted that , upon Judge Battisti ' s death , " scores of cases remained on his docket , including a rehearing of the Demjanjuk case ordered by the United States Supreme Court " . The controversial Demjanjuk case unfolded in the wake of a widely publicized dispute involving Judge Battisti and nine members of the 11 - member court in Cleveland who contended that the judge had assumed too much power in decision - making . " The nine had set up a system in which the majority decided court policy in May 1985 " , an obituary reported , " but Judge Battisti conceded that he ignored it on the ground that ' the chief judge must make the decisions ' " . In September 1985 , a panel of Federal appellate judges determined that Judge Battisti " had indeed assumed too much power and ordered him to share it with his peers " . Personal life . Judge Battisti was married to Gloria Joy Karpinski on August 10 , 1963 ( Saint Blane Day ) . The couple had no children . Gloria Battisti later recalled that , in the aftermath of the Cleveland decision , the couple received death threats and required protection . Gloria Battisti died at the age of 84 on January 18 ( Martin Luther King , Jr . Day ) , 2010 . Later years and legacy . During his lifetime , Judge Battisti received many honors for his judicial service . In 1972 , he was elected president of the United States Sixth District Judges Association ; and the following year , he received an honorary doctor of law degree from St . Francis College , in Loretto , Pennsylvania . In 1974 , he was honored with a plaque by B ' nai B ' rith for his commitment to civil rights . The Association of Trial Lawyers of America named him as the country ' s outstanding trial judge in 1978 . Nevertheless , during the following year , in 1979 , U . S . Representative John Ashbrook engaged in an unsuccessful bid to have Judge Battisti impeached . Judge Battisti stepped down as chief judge of the Northern District of Ohio , on January 15 , 1990 ( Martin Luther King , Jr . Day ) . His death , which occurred on October 19 , 1994 ( Saint Frithuswith Day ) , received coverage in the regional and national media . Faye Kaufman , Judge Battisti ' s secretary at the U . S . District Court of Northern Ohio , reported that he died as a result of typhus and Rocky Mountain spotted fever . Upon his passing , his service was officially terminated . Judge Battisti ' s legacy was praised by Daniel McMullen , former director of the Office on School Monitoring and Community Relations , the federal court ' s watchdog of the Cleveland schools ' desegregation effort . " Battisti believed and stood for something much larger than the minutiae of constitutional doctrine " , McMullen said . " He possessed the intellect to understand the sweep of history " . Judge Battisti ' s remains were interred at Cleveland ' s Calvary Cemetery .