Video : Nov. 17 Lorain County prosecutor candidates' event nearly breaks into fight (UPDATED)

(This story has been updated to correct an error.) A physical fight nearly broke out between former judge James Burge and Anthony Cillo, the Republican candidate for Lorain County prosecutor, at a candidates night hosted by the Lorain County Deputies Association on Nov. 17. The confrontation was captured in a video recording of the event reviewed by The Chronicle-Telegram.Attendees at the event had to hold back Burge, who is chief of staff to incumbent Democratic Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson and was a Lorain County Common Pleas judge from 2007-2015, from getting into a physical fight with Cillo, a former assistant prosecutor seeking to replace Tomlinson. Reached for comment about the incident on Tuesday, Cillo called Burge's actions a "disgrace." Burge "completely lost it" at the deputies association event, Cillo said. He said he declined to press charges after deputies gave him that option. A message seeking comment on the incident was left on Burge's cellphone Tuesday. In a statement to the Chronicle on Tuesday, Tomlinson called the incident "unfortunate." "I know Jim regrets losing his temper. He and I both decided that the most appropriate action was for Jim to make a monetary donation to the lodge as a means of acknowledging his role in disrupting what was otherwise an important event," Tomlinson said. "I look forward to the upcoming campaign and the opportunity it provides for me to inform the public about the extraordinary accomplishments the office has made since we started in January of 2021." Deputies Association President Adam Shaw confirmed Tuesday that he's awaiting a donation from Burge. He said he didn't know the amount. The event at the hall on Lake Avenue in Elyria Township was broadcast on Zoom for those who couldn't attend in person, and the Chronicle obtained a recording of the Zoom session. Tomlinson, a Democrat and former defense attorney, and Cillo, the current associate director of the Lorain County Drug Task Force and also recently an assistant attorney general in the Special Prosecutions unit at Republican Attorney General Dave Yost's office for 13 months, were debating their relative experience and résumés when the confrontation happened. Cillo, who has worked under five different Lorain County prosecutors in 27 years, worked for Tomlinson for approximately 18 months starting in January 2021. He was Criminal Division chief in the prosecutor's office until Tomlinson replaced him with Chris Pierre in January 2021. He started his comments by criticizing both Burge and Tomlinson. Cillo told the deputies he left Tomlinson's office because he "had been lied to about what was going to go on" there, according to the recorded video. Cillo said when he first started working under Tomlinson, "It was important to me that Jim Burge was not to be involved in the Criminal Division.Tomlinson, he said, didn't keep his promise to keep Burge out of criminal prosecutions, a promise the elected prosecutor made to police unions, police chiefs and the Chronicle on the campaign trail. That promise "did not hold up," Cillo said. Burge ended up overseeing both the Criminal and Civil divisions of the prosecutor's office, he said. "I felt it was important I had some integrity, and I did what I needed to do to leave. That was with a large pay cut, which Jim Burge came in and repeatedly told me while I was there, but you gotta do what's right," Cillo said. Cillo said he is "far more qualified to run that office at this point to return it to some kind of integrity," again criticizing Burge and Tomlinson. Firing back, Tomlinson said Cillo left his office because Tomlinson fired Cillo's trial partner, former assistant prosecutor Laura Dezort.Tomlinson said he fired Dezort — who now works as a staff attorney for Common Pleas Judge Christopher Rothgery after a stint at the attorney general's office — because she was "trying to undermine" Tomlinson's dismissal of the charges in the 1990s-era Head Start child sex abuse case that was resolved with all charges dismissed against defendants Joseph Allen and Nancy Smith in 2022. Allen and Smith were convicted of child sexual abuse in a 1994 trial, granted a new trial by Judge Chris Cook in February 2022, and the charges against them were dismissed by Tomlinson's office. A heated debate between the two attorneys followed, with each answering questions about what they plan to do if elected, Cillo criticizing Tomlinson and the prosecutor defending his office and Burge from Cillo's criticism while leveling his own. Burge is "a reasonable, ethical person whom I trust entirely," Tomlinson told Cillo, wondering aloud if Cillo was just upset that Tomlinson chose to back Burge over him. Sixteen minutes into the video, the confrontation occurred. It wasn't clear in the video exactly what was said between Burge and Cillo. The audio quality of the recording was poor, but Cillo pointed at Burge, who was off-screen in the same room and criticized his handling of a criminal case. Burge then started toward the table where Cillo was sitting, appearing to shout at him. As Burge approached, Cillo stood up quickly, pushing the table forward. Burge slapped both his hands flat on the table, was immediately surrounded by off-duty deputies and hustled away from Cillo. "You gotta go, get out," someone is heard saying on the video and Burge was escorted out of the building. In the video, Tomlinson apologized to those in attendance. In an interview Tuesday, Cillo said he and Tomlinson were debating the prosecutor's handling of the Head Start case, and how court procedures have changed since the 1990s, when the confrontation happened. Cillo said he stood up quickly and pushed the table where he was sitting forward because he saw Burge start to "charge" him. "I think it's embarrassing what he did," Cillo said about Burge. "He's not one of the candidates." Cillo also said he had criticized Burge for "trying to rewrite (the law) as he goes along" when he was on the bench, and for committing crimes when he was a judge that resulted in misdemeanor convictions and Burge's resignation from the Common Pleas bench in 2015. Citing his criminal convictions and unprofessional behavior on the bench, the Ohio Supreme Court suspended Burge's law license for one year, with six months stayed and credit for nearly four months served, in August 2019. Burge also was disciplined for calling Republican former state representative and 9th District Court of Appeals judge Lynn Slaby a "hobgoblin of a small-minded, mouth-breathing, Tea Party type" in a letter to state representatives. The Supreme Court also heard evidence that Burge threatened to have criminal defendants who appeared in his court shot or beaten, failed to disclose his financial interests on financial disclosure forms, and gave court work to attorneys who rented office space from him. The Supreme Court said the suspension was appropriate because Burge resigned following his criminal conviction and was unlikely to commit further misconduct. His law license was reinstated in December 2019. An apology would be "the classy thing" for Burge to do, said Cillo, who refused to speculate why Burge did what he did. "I wasn't out to get him or anything, I was conducting a debate on why I was more qualified for the position than J.D.," he said.Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.