CINCINNATI — WCPO's parent company, The E.W. Scripps Company, has filed legal action against Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Donte Johnson after Johnson ruled local media wouldn't be allowed to live stream the criminal trial of a man accused of being involved in a downtown brawl in July 2025.
The trial of Alex Tchervinski, charged with disorderly conduct, is scheduled to begin on March 31.
WCPO filled out legally required applications requesting permission to broadcast, televise, photograph and/or record courtroom proceedings of the trial in September of 2025.
The same day, Johnson granted the broadcast application, but wrote in a condition that live streaming court proceedings would not be allowed.
The E.W. Scripps Company is alleging in its complaint, filed Tuesday morning, that Johnson does not have the power to make that restriction.
You can read the full filing below:
"The Ohio Constitution guarantees that 'all courts shall be open,'" reads the filing, which claims that live streams are critical to a public's right to access to court proceedings open to the public.
The filing also points out that the Supreme Court of Ohio also uses live streams "to broadcast all oral arguments and select court programs and events live on the internet ... in an effort to make the judicial system more accessible to the public."
The complaint, filed with the First Appellate District of Ohio, is asking the court to prohibit Johnson from enforcing the live stream restrictions.
If that were to happen, however, witnesses who testify during the trial will still be given the opportunity to opt out of being recorded during their testimony. Per the Ohio State Supreme Court's rules of superintendence for the courts of Ohio, section 12, all victims and witnesses participating in a trial have a right to object to being filmed, videotaped, recorded or photographed.
The court's rules leave the determination on how to handle that right up to each individual judge presiding over trials throughout the state of Ohio.
After charges were filed against Tchervinski over a month after the fight, police only said a 45-year-old white man has been charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, in connection with the fight near the intersection of 4th and Elm streets in the early morning of July 26.
Police did not name the man, citing Marsy's Law, as he has also been identified as a victim. But we spoke with Tchervinski, who told us he was charged with disorderly conduct.
Tchervinski then became the eighth person charged for alleged participation in the fight, which was caught on video from multiple angles.
