Lance Mason

Lance T. Mason is a former judge in Ohio for the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. He was a member of the Ohio Senate, representing the 25th District from 2007 to 2008. From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, where he served as Assistant Minority Whip during his final year. He was also an assistant prosecuting attorney for the county and was an aide to U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Mason is a Democrat.
Mason holds a B.A. from the College of Wooster and J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School.
In August 2008, Ohio governor Ted Strickland announced that he would appoint Mason to fill a vacancy on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
On August 2, 2014, Mason was arrested and accused of beating his wife while he was driving and their children were in the backseat. He pleaded guilty on August 13, 2015, to attempted felonious assault and domestic violence, and agreed to serve time in prison. On September 3, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended Mason's from practicing law for being a convicted felon. Mason submitted his resignation as judge on September 15. The next day, he was sentenced to two years in prison. During sentencing, the judge read from a police report which detailed how Mason punched his wife 20 times with his fist, smashed her head against the car's center console five times, and continued to beat her, bite her, and threaten her after she exited the car. As a convicted felon, Mason will never be allowed to serve as a judge in the future, but could practice law depending on the outcome of disciplinary action by the state Supreme Court.