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Cleveland activists to picket August 15 over 9 inmate deaths in county jail, malicious prosecutions, excessive sentences against Blacks, inhumane jail conditions, corrupt judges, excessive force, bail reform, speedy trial issues, and grand jury tampering

14 August 2019

Kathy

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com-CLEVELAND, Ohio-Greater Cleveland community members and local community activists, led by Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc and supported by the Imperial Women Coalition, Fathers Lives Matter, the Carl Stokes Brigade, the Black Man's Army, and other Cleveland area activist groups, will again picket the embattled Cuyahoga County Jail at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland on Aug 15, 2019 at 11 am to protest jail conditions, nine inmate deaths in roughly a year, and for Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst to resign for harassing Blacks and activists, among other matters. CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE FOR THIS PROTEST

Organizers said that issues also include excessive force, bail reform, malicious prosecutions, grand jury tampering, indictment fixing, and excessive sentences by the 34 largely White general division common pleas judges, including that of Sheila McFarland, who is Black and serving a sentence of life without the possibility of parole after calling Judge Daniel Gaul a racist in open court, McFarland accused of conspiracy to commit murder with no real proof, public records reveal.

Her case is currently before the Ohio Supreme Court with oral argument set for December, and her family members, among others subjected to excessive sentences, will speak at the rally.

The aforementioned activist groups are part of a larger group of more than 17 organizations that have formed a county jail coalition, Black Cleveland activists saying that while they belong to the larger group of mainly suburban activists, they reserve the right to act independently on issues impacting greater Cleveland's Black community.

Cleveland is a largely Black city led by four-term mayor Frank Jackson, the city's third Black mayor, and Cuyahoga County, the second largest of 88 counties statewide, is 29 percent Black, and a Democratic stronghold.

The Black vote is crucial in local, regional, statewide and national elections as Ohio is, no doubt, a pivotal state.

The upcoming protest follows several pickets by community activists over the county jail, the last protest held on May 23, also at the Justice Center, a protest held a week before Sheriff Cliff Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff, announced he will resign, effective Aug. 2, for "person reasons."

Last week Pinkney was replaced by interim sheriff David Schillings as a national search ensues for a permanent sheriff, County Executive Armond Budish, who appoints the sheriff in conjunction with the 11-member County Council, under fire too, U.S. Marshals, in November issuing findings of unconstitutional and inhumane jail conditions, including assault on inmates, rat and roach infested jail facilities, and the jailing of pregnant inmates on the floor.

Former jail warden Eric Ivey, former jail director Ken Mills and some six jail guards have been indicted for alleged malfeasance relative to what has been dubbed one of the nation's most notorious jails.

The county jail is also the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE LIVE FACEBOOK VIDEO OF THE MAY 23 RALLY AGAINST CONDITIONS IN THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY JAIL BY CLEVELAND CHANNEL 3 NEWS

"At the August 15 rally we will be calling out judges for excessive sentences and we want Judge Nancy Fuerst removed from the bench, her last venture being her refusal to assign indigent Blacks and activists legal counsel in serious cases where they are falsely accused of crimes against White police officers who have harassed them, and this occurs after this runaway judge removes their appointed attorneys from the cases," said activist Alfred Porter Jr., president of Black on Black Crime Inc.

Porter said public records also show that Judge Fuerst is allegedly covering up indictment fixing, falsification of court records by the clerk of courts, and grand jury manipulation. And, data show that she is illegally jailing Blacks who miss trials she will not docket or journalize in writing as required via case law, coupled with scheduling trials in under 24 hours and issuing warrants when Blacks who do not get formal notice of such trials fail to appear.

Finally, Fuerst is threatening Blacks with jail if they insult White male attorneys like Cleveland attorney Brian McGraw, she handpicks as indigent counsel to get illegal convictions against poor Blacks and to allegedly cover up public corruption by a judicial peers and a host of others.

Also at the rally, activists will take on County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley for overcrowding the jail with some innocent people, and prosecuting Blacks and activists beyond the speedy trial time in cooperation with Fuerst and several of the other largely White common pleas to get erroneous convictions.

After ousting fellow Democrat Tim McGinty, O'Malley has been county prosecutor since 2017, and absolutely nothing has changed for the betterment of the Black community, in spite of his campaign promises to do right by Black people.

A noted fool who regularly shielded cops who shot and killed innocent Blacks from indictments, McGinty fell into dispute with his own Democratic party after fraternizing with Republicans and snitching to the Ohio Supreme Court on common pleas judges though McGinty, a common pleas judge turned county prosecutor, was just as crooked, data show.

He lost reelection by roughly 10 percentage points to O'Malley, a former Parma safety director and chief deputy under former county prosecutor Bill Mason, now the chief of staff to embattled County Executive Armond Budish.

Activists want a comprehensive investigation by the FBI and other authorities of the Cuyahoga County general division common pleas bench, which is led by presiding and administrative judge John Russo.

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.

Last Updated on Friday, 16 August 2019 08:52

President Trump says Blacks have nothing to lose in America during U.S. energy speech turned campaign rally as polls show that 75 percent of Black voters disapprove of his performance...."They [Black people] had the worst on everything," Trump said

13 August 2019

Kathy

Pictured are President Donald Trump (wearing blue suit and white shirt), the Rev Al Sharpton (wearing gray suit), Maryland Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings (wearing blue suit), former Ohio senator Nina Turner of Cleveland (wearing green-patterned blouse), the national campaign co-chair for the Bernie Sanders campaign for president in 2020, Democratic U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib of Michigan (wearing red blouse), Ilhan Omar of Minnesota (wearing head garb), Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts(wearing all black and beads), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York (wearing all black and no beads), and Hollywood director Spike Lee

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com-MONACA, Pennsylvania- President Donald Trump lambasted the media, denounced the Academy Awards, facetiously critiqued his Democratic challengers, bragged on his mediocre poll numbers, and said the nation's Black community has nothing to lose during a U.S. a speech on U.S. energy production turned campaign rally at a construction site in Monaca, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, a speech that went on for more than an hour.

Pennsylvania, like neighboring Ohio, is a battleground state that Trump won in 2016 and is struggling to keep red in 2020.

"They [Blacks] had the worse crime rates, the worse education, the worse everything," Trump said of the state of affairs of Black America as the 2020 election nears and the Black vote remains crucial.

He reiterated his campaign stance of 2016, saying of Black people, "what the hell do you have to lose"?

And while that divisive strategy may have drawn him a few Black votes in 2016 when the Republican real estate mogul edged Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to win the presidency, Blacks who traditionally vote Democratic will likely do so again in 2020, data show.

A Fox News poll released last week shows that 75 percent of Black voters do not approve of the president's performance while some 22 percent do, Fox News of which is a conservative media venue that routinely leans Republican, an indication that the president's disapproval rate among Blacks may be even higher.

The president also said Tuesday in Pennsylvania that he has lost some three to five billion dollars since he became president in 2017, CNN's Don Lemon later calling his comments falsehoods and adding that Trump is jealous of former president Barack Obama, the president poking fun during his speech at the price tag his predecessor drew for his upcoming book.

The president was, no doubt, courting the Black vote, which fell seven percentage points from 2012 to 2016 when he won the White House over Hillary Clinton, some four million Obama voters who voted in droves when the country's first Black president was elected in 2008 and reelected in 2012 staying home, and Clinton, in 2016, getting six percent less of the Black vote that was handed to Obama in 2012.

The president is in political trouble, this time around with Black leaders, a hurdle he must overcome to win reelection, not necessarily because of the Black vote itself, but because his recent fallout over his racially divisive rhetoric against congressional congress persons of color and Black Civil Rights leaders transcends racial lines, the New York Times publishing an editorial last week that labeled the White Republican resident racist.

What did the president do exactly to heighten racial tensions in the Black community to the extent that Blacks literally despise him?

His anti-Black policies aside, he publicly accused Oscar winning director Spike Lee, who is Black and urged people to vote Trump out of office during his acceptance speech at this year's Academy Awards of making "a racist hit on the president," the veteran Lee, who has also written and directed such films as "She's Gotta Have It," "Do the Right Thing, and Malcolm-X," winning his first ever Oscar for co-writing "BlacKkKlansman."

He created a fury in mid July by demanding that U.S. Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan go home to the countries they came from, all but Omar, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen who came to America with her U.S. born parents as a child refugee, born in the U.S.

A week after that he went on a rampage against Civil Rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton and seasoned U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, blaming the lawmaker for poverty and disparities against Blacks in housing in the 65 percent Black city of Baltimore, Cummings, in turn, demanding more federal resources for his seventh congressional district

A week later he intensified his attacks on the federal lawmakers, saying in a tweet that the four members of the congressional quartet now dubbed 'the quad' are "incapable of loving our country.”

Other Democratic members of congress, 2020 presidential candidates and world leaders have also lashed out at the president for his flagrant attacks on the four congresswomen of color, longtime Congressman John Lewis of Georgia calling Trump racist and an outright embarrassment to the American people.

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.

Last Updated on Friday, 18 October 2019 07:30

Kamala Harris says Trump's racial rhetoric was ammunition for the mass shooting in El Paso, including, says Harris, his verbal attacks on congress persons of color, most of them women..Harris said she will issue executive orders on gun control if elected

12 August 2019

Kathy

Pictured is U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a former Ohio attorney general and the only Black female candidate in the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com-DES MOINES, Iowa- U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, one of two Blacks in the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination for president and the only Black female candidate, said at a campaign stop on Saturday that President Donald Trump provided the ammunition for the mass shooting Aug 3 in El Paso, Texas that left 22 people dead and dozens injured.

“People say to me, ‘Did Donald Trump cause those folks to be killed?’ Well, no, of course he didn’t pull the trigger," said Harris at the Presidential Gun Sense Forum hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety in Des Moines, Iowa. "But he’s certainly been tweeting out the ammunition."

Harris also said that the president's racial rhetoric has fueled the race controversy in America, which has been elevated by El Paso's mass shooting, where the gunman used an AK-47- style assault rifle and later admitted to targeting Mexicans, and by last week's mass killing in Dayton, Ohio where nine innocent people were gunned down, that shooter using a semi-automatic weapon.

The federal lawmaker and presidential wannabe said gun control is "literally in the hands of Mitch McConnell."

The Senate Majority Leader, McConnell has stalled on bringing two gun control bills before the Senate for a vote, both measures, H.R. 8, a universal background bill, and H.R. 1112, which would allow the unfettered blocking of gun sales by the federal government, passing in the Democratically control House of Representatives while catching static in the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate.

McConnell said the Senate will tackle gun control legislation when it returns from summer recess in September and not a moment sooner, some 214 members of the House Democratic Caucus shooting off a letter to him last week that demands he call congress back into session immediately, a letter he ignored.

Harris has promised to sign executive orders on gun control that would mandate universal backgrounds checks and close loopholes that allow gun owners to buy guns unchecked.

She said the president has added harm to injury by refusing to embrace versatile initiatives in congress designed to curb gun violence.

NRA leaders are outraged over the proposed gun control legislation pending in congress and over Harris' promise to use executive orders on the matter if she becomes president , the senator, in conjunction with nearly all of the 20 or more Democratic candidates for president, saying congress must pass federal laws that effectively deal with private gun dealers who put guns in the hands of criminals who would fail background checks.

The former California attorney general whom polls show is in fourth place among some 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls, behind former vice president Joe Biden and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, told the audience Saturday that Trump has been using Twitter in the past month in a half to lodge unprovoked verbal attacks on federal lawmakers of color, most of them women.

Specifically, he created a fury by demanding that U.S. Reps Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan go home to the countries they came from, all but Omar, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen who came to America with her U.S. born parents as a child refugee, born in the U.S..

A week later he intensified his attacks on the federal lawmakers, saying in a tweet that the four members of the congressional quartet now dubbed 'the quad' are "incapable of loving our country.”

Last Updated on Friday, 18 October 2019 07:23

Mitch McConnell's home picketed in Louisville over gun violence as U.S. Reps. Kaptur and Clyburn demand gun control legislation along with other congressional Democrats, the Dems demanding that McConnell hold a Senate vote on gun control bills

10 August 2019

Kathy

Pictured are Democratic Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Democratic South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, who is the House Majority Whip and a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Following the mass shootings last week that killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas and nine in Dayton, Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) and 213 members of the House Democratic Caucus on Wednesday wrote to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky demanding he immediately call the Senate back into session to pass H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act, and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act.

Both these bipartisan bills were passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in February of this year and have been blocked for a vote by McConnell in the Republican-dominated Senate for more than 162 days, and with support from President Trump.

"Enough is enough," Kaptur said. "It is time for Mitch McConnell to call the Senate back from August recess to pass H.R 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act and H.R. 1112, the Enhanced Background Checks Act, that could prevent dangerous criminals from obtaining weapons and save lives."

McConnell has said that the Senate will not take up gun control legislation again until September when it returns to session, and that he does not intend to disturb the summer recess to debate the issue as demanded by Democrats, the president saying gun violence will be front and center come September.

Sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson, D-California, H.R. 8, a universal background bill, would close legislative loopholes and would disallow person-to-person gun sales if a background check cannot be conducted, such as those at gun shows, over the Internet, or from private dealers.

H.R. 1112, which was sponsored by Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House Majority Whip and a former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, would allow the unfettered blocking of gun sales by the federal government, the NRA in an uproar over the proposed legislation and cautioning President Trump on the measure.

Kaptur said in a statement Wednesday to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com that "the American people are tired of innocent people being gunned down in droves while firearm manufacturers continue to profit from legal sales of AR-15s, AK-47s, and 100-round drum magazines."

She and other congressional Democrats, and gun control advocates, say McConnell is stalling on the gun control legislation.

Protesters on Thursday picketed McConnell's district office and home in Louisville, Kentucky demanding gun control legislation, the federal lawmaker fighting back and saying "I will not be intimidated."

"No Trump! No KKK! No fascist USA!” dozens of protesters chanted, as shown on an Internet video.

One protester, either from McConnell's camp as a ploy, or among the picketers, purportedly called McConnell "a mother------,"an indication that tensions are rising around the volatile gun control issue, Democratic Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley urging Trump to curb his racist rhetoric, most of the victims in last week's mass shootings people of color

The president visited El Paso and Dayton this week relative to the tragic shootings with some family members of the El Paso victims refusing to meet with him.

Kaptur said the president is playing politics with the lives of Americans, gun violence responsible for tens of thousands of deaths annually in America.

"When we hear the president say he sees no political appetite to act on gun reform, he means he sees no political upside for the NRA or some in congress," said Rep. Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose 9th congressional district extends to Cleveland, and the longest serving woman in congress. "The American people don't care what is politically expedient."

Adversarial Republicans argue the proposed legislation crosses the line and unconstitutionally infringes on the right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment.

After last year's Parkland school shooting in Florida the president promised expanded background checks but later backed off following pressure from the NRA, that pressure mounting as the 2020 election nears and the gun control debate is center stage.

The president has since said he supports more gun control measures, a stance that follows mass shootings last week in El Paso, where the gunman used an AK-47- style assault rifle and later admitted to targeting Mexicans, and in Dayton, where the shooter used a semi-automatic weapon.

Republican dominated state legislatures across the country, including in Ohio, are being forced to reexamine gun control legislation offered by Democrats following the celebrated mass shootings last week in Ohio and Texas, Ohio a pivotal state for presidential elections.

Behind last week's Dayton shooting, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican and former U.S. senator and state attorney general who beat Richard Cordray a former Ohio attorney general and consumer watchdog with the Obama administration, in last year's gubernatorial election in Ohio, has proposed expanded background checks for Ohioans, which Democratic state legislators in Ohio have been demanding for decades, if not longer.

"If we do these things, it will matter. If we do these things, it will make us safer,” DeWine said about an array of gun control proposals he unleashed this week in an effort to tackle Ohio's gun violence problem.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog, both also top in Black digital news in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com.

Last Updated on Sunday, 11 August 2019 13:27

Ohioans, Black community mourn death of Toni Morrison, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner and Ohio native, Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur calling Morrison 'Ohio's first lady of literature,' Morrison also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama

07 August 2019

Kathy

Pictured are Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Toni Morrison (wearing braids), Ohio 9th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, who is the longest serving woman in congress, and former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com -NEW YORK-The nation is mourning the death of iconic writer Toni Morrison, the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, which she won in 1993.

Born in Lorain, Ohio into a working class family and the second of four children, Morrison passed away Monday in New York after a short illness, her publicist said in a statement.

She was 88, and never married.

“Toni Morrison passed away peacefully last night surrounded by family and friends,” the statement said. “She was most at home when writing.”

Her career spanned some 60 years.

An American novelist, essayist, poet, Random House editor, teacher and professor emeritus at Princeton University, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for 'Beloved' (1987), a story set during the Civil War and inspired by a slave, the book later adopted into a Hollywood movie directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Oprah, Thandie Newton, and Danny Glover.

Morrison graduated from Lorain High School, an elementary school in the city named in her honor, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in English from Howard University and a master's degree in American literature from Cornell University in 1955.

U.S. Rep Mary Kaptur, the longest serving woman in congress and a Toledo, Ohio Democrat whose 9th congressional district extends to Cleveland and includes parts of Lorain County, which includes the city of Lorain, Ohio where Morrison was born, called the famed Black author Ohio's literature queen.

"Toni Morrison was Ohio's first lady of literature," said Rep. Kaptur. "The pride of Lorain, she gave voice to millions of people who needed one - not just in Ohio and not just in the United States, but around the world."

The congresswoman told Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com in a statement that Morrison had an "exquisite ability as a storyteller and novelist that was forged in her experience as an African-American girl born in the depths of the Great Depression and almost literally in the shadows of a steel mill."

Notable Blacks, including Shondra Rhimes, Beyonce, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, also spoke on Morrison's death, Obama saying in a tweet that the country has lost a great storyteller and prolific writer

"Toni Morrison was a national treasure, and a good storyteller, and she was captivating in person," tweeted Obama, who awarded her the Presidential Metal of Freedom in 2012 when he was president, the nation's first Black president.

Obama said Morrison's writings represent "a beautiful and meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination."

As a book editor she published activist Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali, among others.

When she won the Nobel Prize in 1993 she held an endowed chair at Princeton University, where she was teaching at the time.

She was 39-years-old when she published her first novel in 1970, the 'Bluest Eye,' set in Lorain. Ohio and the story of a Black girl who grows up during the Great Depression, her novels in general focused on racism, sexism, slavery, Black empowerment and American history.

Because of its references to race, and the controversial topics of child molestation and incest conservatives have repeatedly tried to ban the novel from schools and libraries.

Other books by Morrison include 'Song of Solomon,' 'Tar Baby', 'Sula,' and 'Race-ing Justice, En-Gendering Power, essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas."

Though she was a feminist in her own right through her works and stances on Civil and women's rights, she shunned the term feminist as a stereotypical label for women.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 As to the one-on-one interview by Coleman with Obama CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Last Updated on Friday, 09 August 2019 02:01

Cuyahoga County where 9 jail inmates have died names new interim sheriff as a search ensues for a permanent sheriff, the county jail in Cleveland dubbed one of the most notorious jails in the country.... By editor Kathy Wray Coleman

06 August 2019

Kathy

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com -CLEVELAND, Ohio - As a search committee looks for a permanent sheriff, Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, who appoints the county sheriff per the county charter, has appointed a new acting sheriff after the interim sheriff appointed five hours earlier on Monday was demoted to second in command because he could not meet the residency requirement mandated under state law, a mandate that requires that the county sheriff live in the county at least a year prior to appointment.

Lt. Bryan Smith was appointed as interim sheriff Monday, but he only had the title for a few hours and was removed and replaced by Sgt David Schillings, a 15-year veteran with the sheriff's department, Schillings' appointment announced at the end of the day.

Schillings' appointment comes as nine inmates have died in a year in the county jail the sheriff runs.

Smith, who has worked for the county since 1997 and lives in neighboring Lorain County, will serve as interim chief deputy, second in command under Schillings.

“After further reflection and discussion, and out of an abundance of caution, we chose to appoint Lt. Bryan Smith as the Interim Chief Deputy Sheriff and Sgt. David Schilling as the Interim Sheriff,” said Bill Mason, new chief of staff to Budish and a former county prosecutor.

Mason said the residency requirement is not applicable to interim sheriffs while others have argued otherwise, the chief of staff saying Smith was relieved as interim sheriff and replaced with Schillings as a precautionary measure.

Smith was set to make $117,000 annually, replacing Sheriff Clifford Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff who resigned Aug. 2 after four years as sheriff.

Pinkney's annual salary was $128,000.

Pinkney's departure follows the nine recent inmate deaths in the county jail and indictments this year of some five jail guards, one for allegedly contributing to an inmate's death.

He testified before county council days before he left the job, and by subpoena regarding the conditions in the county jail, and said he did not have ultimate authority over the jail as an appointed sheriff, and that his decisions were sometimes usurped.

Former jail director Ken Mills and former warden Eric Ivey, who is Black and was demoted to associate warden, have also been indicted, among other county affiliates.

Appointed rather than elected due to a voter-adopted change in county governance implemented in 2011 that replaced three county commissioners and the county elected offices with a county executive and 11-member county council, all but the still-elected judges and county prosecutor, the sheriff reports to the county executive and is confirmed by county council

This is applicable also to the county clerk of courts, treasurer, auditor and fiscal officer, all of the positions elected until the change in county governance took effect, a governance change that followed an ongoing county public corruption probe that took off in 2008 and has seen a former county commissioner and auditor, two judges, MetroHealth Hospital administrators and doctors imprisoned, among some 75 Democratic operatives prosecuted, mainly businessmen, some of them avoiding prison with plea deals, and not even a hand full of whom were completely exonerated.

Last November U.S. Marshals released a stinging report of the county jail, one of the most notorious jails in the country, and deemed the mistreatment of inmates, including rodent and roach infested facilities, the housing of pregnant women on the floor and assault on female and other inmates, inhumane and unconstitutional.

County Council has put a charter amendment on the ballot for next year to give voters the option of giving it more direct authority over the sheriff, council members saying such ballot initiative takes care of too much power under the county executive while at the same time not returning to an elected sheriff who can perpetuate more corruption as was the case under disgraced former sheriff McFaul.

Budish is in trouble after the FBI and other authorities raided his office twice this year, even confiscating his cell phone, computer and other materials for an ongoing public corruption investigation

That FBI raid on the county executive, a Democrat in a county where the Dems are a stronghold, was multi-faceted, sources say, with authorities searching for evidence relative to an ongoing county public corruption probe, and for answers as to why Budish and jail administrators allegedly ignored the inmate deaths until gaining the spotlight, the county jail now in the news as one of the nation's most notorious jail's.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 As to the one-on-one interview by Coleman with Obama CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Last Updated on Thursday, 15 August 2019 13:37

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Cleveland activists to picket August 15 over 9 inmate deaths in county jail, malicious prosecutions, excessive sentences against Blacks, inhumane jail conditions, corrupt judges, excessive force, bail reform, speedy trial issues, and grand jury tampering

President Trump says Blacks have nothing to lose in America during U.S. energy speech turned campaign rally as polls show that 75 percent of Black voters disapprove of his performance...."They [Black people] had the worst on everything," Trump said

Kamala Harris says Trump's racial rhetoric was ammunition for the mass shooting in El Paso, including, says Harris, his verbal attacks on congress persons of color, most of them women..Harris said she will issue executive orders on gun control if elected

Mitch McConnell's home picketed in Louisville over gun violence as U.S. Reps. Kaptur and Clyburn demand gun control legislation along with other congressional Democrats, the Dems demanding that McConnell hold a Senate vote on gun control bills

Ohioans, Black community mourn death of Toni Morrison, Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winner and Ohio native, Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur calling Morrison 'Ohio's first lady of literature,' Morrison also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama

Cuyahoga County where 9 jail inmates have died names new interim sheriff as a search ensues for a permanent sheriff, the county jail in Cleveland dubbed one of the most notorious jails in the country.... By editor Kathy Wray Coleman

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