Cleveland v. Daniels, 2018 Ohio 4773

Tyrone Daniels owned a duplex in Cleveland; city inspectors found interior and exterior housing-code violations after a January 3, 2017 notice to abate and a follow-up inspection on March 16, 2017 showing noncompliance.
City charged Daniels with failure to comply with a Building Department order under C.C.O. §3103.25(e); the complaint treated each day of continuing noncompliance as a separate first-degree misdemeanor, alleging 42 days/counts.
Daniels proceeded pro se at the plea hearing and orally pleaded no contest; the court accepted the plea and found him guilty on 42 counts.
Daniels later obtained appointed counsel for sentencing; the court sentenced him to three days jail and three years community control.
On appeal Daniels raised five assignments: no factual basis, invalid plea (technical pleading form), deprivation of counsel at plea, misinformation about penalties, and that only one misdemeanor could be charged. The appellate court affirmed the conviction, vacated the jail portion of the sentence, and remanded for further proceedings.

Issue	City (Plaintiff) Argument	Daniels (Defendant) Argument	Held
Valid waiver of counsel at plea	Plea colloquy showed Daniels knowingly waived counsel by stating he wanted to proceed without an attorney	Trial court failed to conduct the required Crim.R. 44/Gibson colloquy; did not advise dangers of self-representation or review elements/defenses	Waiver invalid; conviction stands but jail portion of sentence vacated; remand for further proceedings
Formality of no-contest plea	Daniels affirmatively said "no contest" in open court	Plea allegedly invalid because he didn’t utter the words at the end of the colloquy	Plea was unequivocally and validly tendered orally; claim overruled
Notice / penalties for 42 counts	Complaint and ordinance provide that each day of continued noncompliance is a separate offense; court correctly informed of cumulative maximum penalties	Complaint only listed one offense; Daniels lacked notice he was charged with 42 separate misdemeanors	Appellate waiver: Daniels failed to object below, so claim is waived; court upheld the 42-count structure and penalty explanation
Factual basis for conviction	Inspector’s statement (explanation of circumstances) provided facts, including that no permits were observed	Explanation did not explicitly state repairs occurred without permits; insufficient factual basis	Record contained adequate explanation of circumstances; factual-basis challenge overruled

Powell v. Alabama, 287 U.S. 45 (right to counsel before conviction and imprisonment)
Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (criminal defendants have right to appointed counsel)
Von Moltke v. Gillies, 332 U.S. 708 (waiver of rights must be made knowingly and intelligently)
State v. Gibson, 45 Ohio St.2d 366 (Ohio standard for valid waiver of counsel)
State v. Martin, 103 Ohio St.3d 385 (waiver requires awareness of offenses, penalties, defenses)