Ralph "Ted" Winkler Reprimanded

Ralph Edward "Ted" Winkler, judge of the Hamilton County Probate Court in Cincinnati, was publicly reprimanded by the Ohio Supreme Court on August 21, 2024, over his handling of public comments about a long-running guardianship case involving an elderly woman with dementia. The Court found Winkler had improperly authorized his assistant court administrator to make false statements to a news reporter about the case, and then made his own misstatements defending the court's handling of it in a 2022 Facebook comment, which he later deleted.

The Court ruled Winkler's conduct violated judicial ethics rules barring public comments that could reasonably be expected to affect the outcome or impair the fairness of a pending matter, finding he failed to exercise the restraint and care his position required. In addition to the public reprimand, Winkler was ordered to pay the costs of the disciplinary proceedings.