Background: Footage of Hannah Freeman reacting to her sentencing in Cuyahoga County Court (WKYC/YouTube) Inset left: Defense attorney Michael Kinlin (WKYC/YouTube) Inset right: Judge David Matia (WKYC/YouTube)
The case of an educator accused of stalking her ex-boyfriend in Ohio devolved into a cascade of arguments and outbursts in court after the defense team displayed their shock over the judge”s sentencing.
Hannah Freeman shrieked on Thursday as the judge announced her fate – which included seven days in jail. Her defense attorney, Michael Kinlin, also was shocked. According to him, the plea deal to which they had agreed with prosecutors in June dictated that she would avoid jail time and only receive probation.
As Kinlin put it, in return for pleading guilty to the misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct, possessing criminal tools, and obstruction – instead of felony charges of menacing by stalking, trespass, theft, and identity fraud – the prosecution would not seek jail time, especially as Freeman had no prior criminal history.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge David Matia was apparently not consulted.
When Matia announced Freeman’s sentence – 18 months of probation, 90 days of house arrest with work release, mental health counseling, and no contact with the victim in addition to the seven days in jail – Kinlin attempted to withdraw his client’s plea, according to video obtained by Cleveland-based NBC affiliate WKYC. This resulted in a contentious exchange between the judge and attorney.
“We had an agreed sentence,” Kinlin said.
“You didn’t agree with me, Mr. Kinlin, and I am charged with sentencing,” Matia replied.
“At this point, your Honor, we would make a motion to withdraw her plea and would rather go to trial,” the attorney said.
“Because you don’t like this sentence?” the judge asked.
“No, because we don’t like the way the court has interpreted the facts,” the defense attorney replied.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
The judge then asked if Kinlin had spoken with him about how he might sentence Freeman in the roughly six months between her being indicted in December and pleading guilty to lesser charges in June.
Kinlin responded by claiming the judge wasn’t available.
“I’m available all the time, Mr. Kinlin,” Matia said. “You chose to plead your sentence, your client.”
“We only met with you one time, your honor,” the defense attorney said. “At this point we would ask to withdraw her plea.”
“I’m offended that you would make the insinuation here that I don’t work enough,” the judge responded, which Kinlin quickly denied.
Their back-and-forth continued – with Kinlin admitting that he spoke with the judge about Freeman being taken off GPS monitoring in April but never about her possible sentencing.
“I just asked you, did you make any effort to talk to me about what sentence I would impose after you negotiated a plea deal with the state of Ohio?” Matia asked.
“No,” the attorney replied. “But we did have an agreed sentence with the state. We would ask the court to go along with that agreed sentence as it’s a condition of the plea.”
“Didn’t ask me. Sorry,” Matia asserted as Kinlin attempted to interject. The judge added: “Your bad practice is not my problem.”
“I don’t think it’s my bad practice, your honor,” the defense attorney pleaded, which the judge dismissed: “We’re done.”
It is at this point that Freeman seemed to recognize her punishment, looking up at Kinlin and crying.
Freeman was a 27-year-old educator at North Ridgeville City Schools near Cleveland when she was accused of stalking her ex-boyfriend. Body camera and surveillance footage from Nov. 7, 2024, captured Freeman showing up to the school where the man worked and sitting in her car in the parking lot.
While she claimed to Westlake Police officers that her ex-boyfriend had invited her there, he firmly rejected this.
“She probably would say that,” the victim told cops in the body camera video, which was redacted to hide his identity. “She actually, yesterday, followed me to my apartment. She actually stole stuff from my car, medications which I need, my car keys – which I actually was able to get back from her, a laptop, my wallet, and she just ran up a bunch of charges on one of my credit cards.”
At the time, police took her into custody after questioning her in her car.
Matia appeared dismayed by the case before delivering his sentencing on Thursday.
“This is frankly a bizarro breakup between two professionals,” the judge said after shaking his head. “The pre-sentence investigation does not paint a pretty picture of your behavior, Ms. Freeman. You should’ve known that it was over. It was my understanding the victim had someone else in his life.”
Diane Menashe, a criminal defense attorney, suggested to Law&Crime’s On the Case with Chris Stewart that Kinlin erred in not contacting the judge about how he was considering sentencing his client.
“We all know that as defense attorneys, we have to tell our clients: ‘While this is the plea deal, the judge is the one that ultimately decides, and here are the maximum possible penalties,'” she said.
“And as I listen to the whole video, I mean it was really clear that he didn’t do what all of us do, which is – before we enter into that courtroom – make sure that we sit down with the judge and we know as much as we can what’s about to happen and unfold so that we can prepare our client,” Menashe added.
