Pictured are Cleveland Ward 10 councilman and mayoral candidate Jeff Johnson, who is Black, Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Belvan Walsh, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley (wearing grey suit) )
Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland Ward 10 Councilman Jeff Johnson was cleared to continue his bid for mayor after Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, acting as a special prosecutor in place of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, this week issued a legal assessment in Johnson's favor relative to a complaint pending with the county board of elections.
The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, upon Walsh's recommendation, on Tuesday voted unanimously to reject the challenge brought by Ed Davila, a suspended and former Stark County attorney.
Neighboring Summit County includes the city of Akron, the native home of Cleveland Cavaliers power forward and NBA megastar LeBron James.
Johnson seeks to unseat incumbent three-term Mayor Frank Jackson in this year's election and is among a crowded field of possible mayoral candidates, which also include state Rep Bill Patmon, Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed, and former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer, all of whom are Black like Jackson.
The city's non-partisan primary for city council, all 17 seats of which are up for grabs, and the race for mayor are September 12 with a June 29 deadline for filing legitimate petitions to get on the ballot.
Walsh said in her written legal assessment that state law permits common pleas judges to expunge certain state and federal convictions, including felony convictions for extortion, for which Johnson was convicted of some two decades ago, his record subsequently wiped clean by a common pleas judge in Cuyahoga County.
The board of elections challenge said in part that the board of elections should usurp state law and brand extortion as bribery, a felony conviction not eligible to be expunged under state law in Ohio.
And Walsh, who stepped in for O'Malley after O'Malley said he had a conflict of interest, said that in her legal assessment that the board of elections had no such authority, and that it is clear that Johnson was convicted of extortion, not bribery.
A former Akron assistant city prosecutor, Walsh is a Democrat like Johnson, and a no-nonsense prosecutor who last year was elected to a historical fifth term.
First elected in 2000, Walsh is a powerful woman, and has a long list of notable wins during her four terms as Summit County prosecutor, including a conviction this year of former Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee, who is Black, on seven counts of corruption related charge, and the denial last year by a Summit County common pleas judge of a bid by Akron police captain Douglas Prade, who is also Black, for a new trial in the 1997 slaying of his Black ex-wife, Dr Margo Prade.
A Glenville councilman who was head of the Black student union and homecoming king in his college days at Kent State University, Johnson was convicted in late 1998 by a federal jury of Hobbs Act extortion for reportedly receiving some $17,000 in campaign contributions from Arab-American grocers.
But the federal indictment did not charge Johnson with bribery. He was charged, in fact, with four counts of extortion and two counts of wire fraud.
The wire fraud counts were dismissed before trial and Johnson, who alleged entrapment to no avail, was convicted on three of the four extortion counts.
The councilman served nine months of a 15-month federal prison sentence.
When the federal indictment came down Johnson, also a former city councilman, was a state senator in ambitious pursuit of the congressional seat vacated by the retirement of longtime 11th congressional district congressman Louis Stokes, a seat currently held by Marcia Fudge that went to the late Stephanie Tubbs- Jones of Cleveland, who was Black like Stokes and Fudge.
The Ohio Supreme Court restored Johnson's law license in 2009 and in 2010 he was again elected to city council.
Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com