Sommerville shows class in court

What happened today during Marco Sommerville's arraignment is something I've never seen before and probably never will again.

The President of Akron City Council was arraigned in Barberton Municipal Court this afternoon on one count of Carrying a Concealed Weapon. The heck with losing his city council job, this charge is a felony charge that carries the possibility of jail time. This is serious folks.

OK .. set aside how much you like or don't like Sommerville for a second.

How would you react to TV cameras and a half dozen reporters locked in on your every breath from the moment you appeared in the courthouse? You no longer have personal space. If you smile, we capture it. If you scowl, it's on tape. And don't even think about turning around and walking back out. Think you'd be calm?

From the second Sommerville got off the second-floor elevator, he became 'the target' to the TV cameras and accompanying reporter sidekicks. No place to run or hide. No way to be graceful about it. No real way to look good in that situation -- it's just degrees of bad. "Marco-the-motivated-political-leader" was reduced to "Sommerville-the-sensational-gun-toting-accused-felon."

Rather than hide in the hallway as many defendants do .. and then jump into the courtroom at the last second and try to use their attorneys to block them from the cameras ... Sommerville sat calmly, said hello to us in the media .. and told another reporter and I that he didn't blame us for a second. He acknowledged that he knew we had a job to do ... and doesn't think we need to be sorry for anything.

He approached the bench for his hearing then walked calmly out of the courtroom to the clerk's office to post bond. With cameras rolling he politely accomplished all the signatures needed for his release and said "thank you" to the clerk.

Now came time to run the gauntlet. Out of the clerk's office and into the shark tank. Marco could have easily ducked his head and fled like many defendants do. Instead, he calmly stopped and took the time to offer his statement of apology. As he headed to the elevator, Marco smiled and thanked us for our time and departed.

Now .. some of you might think that Marco conducted himself this way because he's got a high-profile attorney or because he knows he's only going to get a fine in the end or because he would have faced cameras sooner or later at city hall anyway.

Still, after 17+ years of covering the courts in this town, I've never seen someone conduct themselves this way when they make their first appearance as a defendant. Most have that "I can't believe I'm in this mess" look followed by the "get away from me you media vultures" stare.

Marco was none of that. He seemed genuine and quite understanding of why he was being cast into the media spotlight.

None of this makes up for his mistake of taking a loaded gun into the airport, but his demeanor while in the crosshairs of the "evening news sin machine" spoke a great deal to me about his character.