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Domestic violence

A five-year order, running until August 2027.

01

What happened, and what the courts found

Rocky River Municipal Court · Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division

24 December 2020 · Criminal case

Christmas Eve, at the home of his wife and children

Four months after the divorce was filed, William Easton Horner was charged with criminal damaging / endangering for actions at the home of his wife and children on Christmas Eve 2020. He was later found guilty on a reduced charge.

He was not arrested that night. The case was not filed until 28 December, when a warrant issued the same day. It was not served until 25 January — and on that day his written motion to recall it was refused, the court directing that he “must go in person… and be processed (fingerprints).” He posted bond the following day.

On 9 March 2021 he pleaded no contest to a reduced charge and was found guilty. The sentence records who the damage was done to: restitution of $605.99 payable to Cathy Stark — his ex-wife’s mother.

In her later petition for a protection order she described the same night in her own hand: he “attempted to break into my home on 12/24/20 and was convicted.” The conviction is for the reduced charge — disorderly conduct — not for breaking in, and no court has found that he entered.

Municipal criminal case No. CRB 2001964 · charge as filed, criminal damaging / endangering, a misdemeanour of the fourth degree · convicted on a plea of no contest to a reduced charge, 9 March 2021

See also. The whole sequence in order on the timeline, and the protection order that followed in August 2022.

18 November 2021 · Divorce decree

No parental rights. No visitation. He did not attend the trial.

His wife was granted a divorce and sole custody of the two minor children. The Eighth District Court of Appeals affirmed, noting he “voluntarily chose to not participate in many of the trial court proceedings.” The Supreme Court of Ohio declined to hear a further appeal.

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations, No. DR-20-382383 · affirmed, Eighth District No. 111085, 2022-Ohio-2501, 21 July 2022 — the opinion is captioned in initials, A.H. v. W.E.H. · Supreme Court of Ohio No. 2022-1075

See also. The three years of filings that led to this decree are set out in the chronology.

20 September 2022 · Protection order

A court found that William Easton Horner committed domestic violence against his ex-wife and their children

Finding by a preponderance of the evidence that he had committed domestic violence against his ex-wife, their two minor children and other members of her household, the court issued a five-year protection order. It found the petitioner’s testimony credible, and recorded on the order that he has access to firearms.

In the same order, the court found that he:

  • had “engaged in menacing conduct,” sending emails, postcards and social media messages to his ex-wife, her mother, her family, friends and neighbors from April 2022 onward;
  • “threatens to take the children from the Petitioner and change their identity so that Petitioner never sees the children again”;
  • had published postings stating that a named FBI agent “would come to Cleveland and execute Petitioner, Petitioner’s mother, and their children”;
  • linked every message to a website carrying accusations of criminal conduct against them that no court has ever found to have any basis;
  • told his ex-wife he could arrive at her home “armed to the ‘T’ and take the children,” and she would never see them again;
  • caused her “significant mental distress” — she does not sleep well, is afraid to leave her home, and fears he will remove the children from school.

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations · Judge Tonya R. Jones · Stark v. Horner, No. DV-22-391235

See also. Two weeks after it issued, he wrote across its face in marker and filed it back with the court — see what he wrote.

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