In The News 12 May 2025

Suspended Montgomery County Municipal Court judge pleads guilty to obstructing official business

COLUMBUS — A suspended Montgomery County Municipal Court judge pleaded guilty May 9 to a misdemeanor count following an investigation by the Auditor of State’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) into the employment of his son in the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts Office.

James Piergies admitted to the single count of obstructing official business and was sentenced during a hearing in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.

As part of a plea agreement, he received a 90-day suspended jail sentence, two years of community control, and a $750 fine. He also must complete 75 hours of community service and is resigning from the bench.

The SIU investigation related to the employment of Piergies’ son in the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts Office, though his salary was covered by a disbursement from Montgomery County Municipal Court, with the transfers signed by Piergies.

Piergies was indicted in July 2024. SIU attorneys were appointed as special prosecutors in the case.

Since 2019, the Special Investigations Unit has assisted in 137 convictions resulting in more than $13 million in restitution (see Map of SIU Convictions since January 2019). The team receives hundreds of tips of suspected fraud annually. Tips can be submitted anonymously online or via SIU’s fraud hotline at 866-FRAUD-OH (866-372-8364).

Add new comment

This is not for publication.
This is not for publication.
About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
Article comments are not posted immediately to the Web site. Each submission must be approved by the Web site editor, who may edit content for appropriateness. There may be a delay of 24-48 hours for any submission while the web site editor reviews and approves it. Note: All information on this form is required. Your telephone number and email address is for our use only, and will not be attached to your comment.
CAPTCHA This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.