Pictured are 137 shots unarmed Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Malissa Williams and 137 shots unarmed Cleveland police fatal shooting victim Timothy Russell
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com CLEVELAND, Ohio- Two Cleveland police supervisors, each facing a second degree misdemeanor charge of dereliction of duty regarding their roles in a 2012 chase from downtown Cleveland to neighboring East Cleveland that left two unarmed Black suspects dead and the city's Black community in shock, will go on trial Monday, July 15, 2019 at 9:30 am before East Cleveland Municipal Court Judge William Dawson.(Editor's note: Subsequent to the publishing of this article the trial of Cleveland police supervisor Sgt. Patricia Coleman went forward but that of Sgt. Randolph Dailey was postpones as his attorney, Henry Hilow, is in trial in federal court).
Steeped in politics, the trial comes some six and a half years since the deadly 2012 shooting.
Dawson is Black and a well-liked judge, and the younger brother of longtime Cleveland Fox 8 News anchorman Wayne Dawson, both lauded in the Black community as the accomplished 'Dawson brothers,' Wayne Dawson also an ordained minister.
According to the case docket, the judge denied a motion filed on behalf of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams to quash a subpoena for trial, which means that the two of them, both Black, must either testify if called upon to do so by East Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Willa Hemmons, or take the Fifth Amendment.
Safety Director Michael McGraft is also on Hemmons' list of witnesses, among others.
If convicted, the police supervisors, Patricia Coleman and Randolph Dailey, whom prosecutors say failed to control the deadly chase, and were, thus, derelict in their duties, face up to 90 days in jail and a $750 fine.
Community activists generally protest annually on the anniversary of the killings that occurred the night of Nov 29, 2012, activists this year choosing to protest in front of the courthouse beginning at 5 am Monday morning, July 15, until later that evening at 5 pm.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FACEBOOK PAGE FOR THE SLEEPOVER EVENT
"We invite people to the protest in front of the East Cleveland courthouse and to the 9:30 am trial on Monday in East Cleveland," said longtime activist Art McKoy, an organizer of the sleepover.
Activist Kathy Wray Coleman of Imperial Women Coalition who along with McKoy and activist Alfred Porter Jr., has organized several anniversary rallies since 2012 to keep the issue before the public, said that while she will not be there with activists Monday she urges "as many people as possible to pack the courtroom in East Cleveland Monday morning for trial."
Kathy Wray Coleman, who is Black and no relation to Patricia Coleman, called the tragic killings of Williams and Russell by police "execution-style, and senseless and irresponsible."
Patricia Coleman and Dailey, the two officers facing trial, and supervisors Michael Donegan, Jason Edens and Paul Wilson all initially faced misdemeanor dereliction of duty charges from the 22-minute chase where 13 non-Black officers officers fired 137 bullets at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, killing both of them instantly, Russell the driver of the 1979 Malibu Classic and Williams a passenger.
Williams and Russell were homeless, and struggled with drug addiction, hardly enough to justify the execution-style shooting, legal pundits have said.
Originally indicted in common pleas court, the case was dismissed and charges were filed in East Cleveland where the deadly chase, which began in downtown Cleveland when a cop claimed he mistook Russell's car backfiring a s a shot at him, ended.
Earlier this year charges were dismissed against Edens, Wilson and Donegan, with Patricia Coleman and Dailey both scheduled to go on trial Monday.
,
Donegan had been fired and later reinstated and two other supervisors were demoted and were later reinstated to their previous supervisory positions, all three fighting the discipline and winning
Of the 13 Cleveland officers that fired the combined 137 shots, 12 White and one Hispanic, six were fired, including Michael Brelo, who jumped on the hood of Russell's car and shot 49 times through the front windshield, both Russell and Williams dying at the scene in the parking lot at Heritage Middle School in largely Black East Cleveland where the chase ended
Five of the six officers fired for their roles in the shooting had their jobs reinstated in 2017 by an arbitrator and are Michael Farley, Erin O'Donnell, Christopher Ereg, Wilfredo Diaz, and Brian Sabolik.
The sixth officer, officer Brelo, was not reinstated after he was acquitted in May of 2015 on two counts of voluntary manslaughter in a bench trial before Democratic Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell.
O'Donnell ruled that there was no way to tell which bullets killed Williams and Russell, Black leaders, led by some Black members of 17-member Cleveland City Council, all of them Democrats like O'Donnell, blocking him in a subsequent election for justice to the Ohio Supreme Court, a race he lost by less than 24,000 votes.
Some 276 patrol officers were working the night of the chase, and 104 faced punishment, Williams and Russell chased by some 64 patrol cars, and literally fleeing for their lives.
The city settled a wrongful death lawsuit for $3 million that was split between the families of the two victims, Russell leaving behind a grown disabled son.
Former prosecutor Tim McGinty, criticized for scheming and preventing felony indictments against the cops at issue, and also protecting the rookie cop that, in 2014, shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice, was voted out of office in 2016 in favor of fellow Democrat and current county prosecutor Mike O'Malley
The celebrated 137 shots shooting, the impetus for a still pending consent decree for police reforms with the city and federal government, gained national attention, some 75 protesters arrested, mainly for resisting arrest, following the issuance by O'Donnell of his controversial 2015 Brelo verdict.
Judge O'Donnell subsequently lost a bid for justice to the Ohio Supreme Court, his second in the last five years, the last bid a loss by just about 24,000 votes, and after some Black male Cleveland council members upset over the Brelo verdict, publicly urged their constituents and others to vote against the judge.
O'Donnell is also under fire for the documented theft of homes of Black and other county residents via illegal foreclosures led by JPMorgan Chase Bank and its affiliated foreclosure law firms of Bricker and Eckler, Thompson Hine, and Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|