CLEVELAND, Ohio — An iconic emblem of courts of law in this country is the statue of Lady Justice — she is blindfolded while holding the scales to show show justice is unbiased.
Lady Justice serves as a guide. For two Cleveland judges, the guide is their mother, also a judge.
Enter the family Saffold.
"It's fun to discuss legal issues with the two of them," Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold says of her children, "and of course, they always team up together against me."
For 37 years, Shirley Strickland Saffold has been on the bench, first in Cleveland Municipal Court but for the bulk of her time as a jurist in Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court. She is flanked by her two children: Judges Jeffrey Saffold, elected to Cuyahoga Common Pleas Court in 2022, and Sydney Strickland Saffold, elected to Cleveland Municipal Court in 2023.
Three in the bloodline, elected to serve in the same Justice Center building.
Leon Bibb: "At the dinner table did you talk about this with the kids present?"
"They have always seen the court and been around the court," Shirley Strickland Saffold recalled of Jeffrey and Sydney's upbringing.
In their teenage years, both Jeffrey and Sydney walked the same Justice Center hallways with their mother, finding inspiration in their walks and talks.
"You know, when you see people that sort of look like you and there's a belief that maybe you can do these things as well," Jeffrey Saffold said.
"I obviously grew up in the home with my mom as a judge, and then I got to go watch Jeff litigate, and he was a criminal defense attorney at the time," Sydney Strickland Saffold remembered. "And the first time I saw him in the courtroom, he was in the middle of a trial, and he got up there and it was like he was walking on water."
But to become the only mother-son-daughter family of judges working in the same community takes more than inspiration from the matriarch. The African American family has done the hard work of preparation for the law, and for the court.
Even outside the court, when the family gathers, the subject of the law is sometimes debated.
Shirley sees Jeffrey as an independent mind, often deep in thought.
"He and I got at it in terms of political ideas and philosophies," she admitted.
"It is a question of 'When did you sort of grow up in the law?' Jeffrey remarked, before referring to his mother with her formal title. "Judge [Shirley] Saffold grew up in the law during a time where it was a real leaning toward harsh sentences, and I came up seeing the long-term negative effects of that process of mass incarceration."
On Sydney, Shirley says she "is equally smart, but she will approach it more subtly. But both of them differ from me."
"I've learned this from my brother, that our court should be somewhere you can run to for help," Sydney explained. "It shouldn't feel like us versus them."
All three Saffolds view the courts as not only a place to deal with the legal rights and wrongs of a society, but also as vital cogs in the lives of everyday people.
On Valentine's Day, Municipal Court's Sydney Strickland Saffold set aside her usual black judge's robe for one of bright red as one of the officials marrying couples. No prosecution this day; all in loving agreement.
The same could be said of the three Saffold judges. There is love of this Greater Cleveland community where the family listens to the sides of cases to make judgments.
You see, judges are like umpires: Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them. The role of the judge is critical. They make sure everyone plays by the rules.
But it is a limited role, and its true nobody ever went to the ballgame to see the umpire. Yet they are key to our legal system, ensuring disputing parties are governed by the same rules. The Saffolds view their accomplishments with modest eyes.
"It's Black History month with three African American lawyers who became judges," Jeffrey Saffold noted, "but I think larger than that, if you can really look at this, what you see is just people who had role models that looked like them."
"So I hope these two will do that, and I think that they have that kind of energy that they can meet people, say, 'You know, I understand you,'" Shirley Strickland Saffold said. "'I share some of, you know, your problems, and you know you can look to me as a role model.'"
This is a story of a mother, son, and daughter — each presiding in a city or a county court of law. But the Saffolds will tell you they are more than that: All view themselves as servants of the community and of the law.
One final note: This is Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold's last year on the bench, as Ohio is among states with a mandatory retirement age. However, the law remains in the family bloodlines: One of Judge Jeffrey Saffold's sons is currently in law school.
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