By Sharon Turco
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals reversed a judge's decision to expunge a Cincinnati man's felony conviction and berated the judge for ignoring the law.

The appeals court said the law does not allow an expungement for offenses of violence. Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Norbert Nadel granted Larry Pitts an expungement of an aggravated assault charge last year.

The court has reversed at least 13 other expungements granted by Nadel since 1990.

Writing for a unanimous court, Appeals Court Judge Mark Painter noted that an extensive amount of work by defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges had to be done in each case.

"All this needlessness sucks money from the taxpayers, respect from the law and patience from this court," Painter wrote in the decision. "And, for what? To order one person to comply with the law - the one person who should comply with the law without being told."

Nadel declined to comment. During a hearing on the motion, he noted the expungement process - in which court records are sealed - was discretionary and granted the motion over the state's objection.

Pitts, 33, of Price Hill, was arrested in June 1997 on a charge of felonious assault after getting into an auto accident, then kicking and punching the victim so violently the victim needed medical treatment, according to Cincinnati Police Department report. Pitts was indicted in October, and in 1998 pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of aggravated assault. Nadel sentenced Pitts to a year in prison.

In 2002, Pitts asked for the charge to be expunged, which Nadel granted last August. A month later the state filed an appeal.

Painter once compared a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge to a hanging judge and issued a ruling against a judge who quoted the Bible.

E-mail sturco@enquirer.com