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On Thursday, Finney Law Firm client Eugene Utz sued Pavan Parikh, the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts, and today will be filing a separate suit against the City of Cincinnati directly at the Ohio Supreme Court — both as original actions, as is permitted and appropriate — to open the records of the criminal proceedings against Alex Tchervinski, the claimed-to-be victim of the July 26, 2025 4th street brawl in downtown Cincinnati that has gained intense and sustained international media and political attention.

A cornerstone of our justice system — in Ohio and throughout the nation — is that all legal proceedings (with the exceptions [each for obvious reasons] of juvenile court and national security issues) is openness and transparency in legal proceedings.  This means that pleadings, hearings, trials and appellate work are all immediately open to public viewing and scrutiny.  This is not a hard concept to understand.

The opposite is a “Star Chamber,” named for a former English court (c. 1485–1641) known for its use of arbitrary and unfair methods.  This term has been used to describe any tribunal that acts with a similar lack of due process, which is utterly abusive of our our established standards for the American administration of justice.

Notwithstanding that, our Cincinnati administrators and our County Clerk of Courts — with no authority and no order of the Court — have on their own decided to seal the records of the criminal charges against Alex Tchervinski, the claimed-to-be victim of the July 26, 2025 4th street brawl that has gained national attention.  No representative of the media and no member of the public can see the criminal charges or any other filings in the Tchervinski criminal case.  (But they can see the court records of the six black defendants of involved in the melee.  How does this make any sense?)  At this stage, no Judge has even ruled (which ruling would be improper) to seal such records.  We hear secondhand that the defendant does not even know the charges against him.

All of Constitutional principles of due process and free speech (i.e., access to the public and press to comment and report on Court proceedings), Ohio’s public records law and the Rules of Superintendence of the Courts promulgated by the Ohio Supreme Court require these records to be made public.  But yet, the City Solicitor and the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts have decided to protect them from public release.

One might ask “why?” but of course we don’t know the “why” without seeing the records.  Moreover and simply amazingly, the City and the Clerk have sealed the Motion to Seal the records, so we don’t even know the argument for the sealing.  This is beyond abusive, it is simply bizarre.

Watch this blog for updates on this important case.

Read the Clerk of Courts Mandamus Complaint before the Ohio Supreme Court here: 2025_09_04_Complaint

Contact Curt Hartman (513.379.2923), Christopher Finney (513.943.6655) or Mickey McClanahan (513.797.2850) for assistance with public interest issues.