By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor
CLEVELAND, Ohio-Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor (pictured second) has denied an affidavit of prejudice filed against chief Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst (pictured third) in May by county prosecutor Bill Mason (pictured first), who claimed in the affidavit that Fuerst is biased against him and his entire staff of over 150 assistance county prosecutors and wanted her removed after she assigned former common pleas judge Robert Glickman as a special prosecutor to investigate a perjury allegation stemming from a since dismissed rape case and did not hold a hearing first.
Elected by her 33 judicial colleagues in the general division that hear felony cases, lawsuits seeking damages in excess of $15 thousand, and other legal matters, Fuerst is both the presiding and administrative judge of the court and by state law she hears affidavits of prejudice filed against municipal court judges in the Cuyahoga Count for potential removal of them from cases, though public records show that she denies nearly all of them, regardless of the merits.
O'Connor, on the other hand, hears affidavits of prejudice filed against common pleas judges statewide,and also under state law, to determine if removal from a case is warranted and she does practically the same thing, in addition to handpicking retired visiting judges with nothing to lose to send throughout the state to venues like the Berea Municipal Court to allegedly manipulate case outcomes in both civil and criminal cases.
A lame duck prosecutor who did not seek a fourth four-year term this year, Mason has been quarreling with the judges but offered an olive branch welcoming Glickman as the special prosecutor after O'Connor refused to remove Fuerst from the matter by denying the prejudice affidavit.
The controversy arose after common pleas judge Michael Donnelly tossed out a felony rape charge, saying the alleged victim's mother lied under oath at trial and asked Fuest to eliminate Mason's office as investigating the perjury allegation
The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, had urged Mason and Fuerst to get along relative to the dispute, though an elected Black officials said under condition of anonymity that "it is difficult to maliciously and successfully prosecute innocent Blacks if there is conflict between the county prosecutor and the corrupt judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas that permit it."
Fuerst and Mason are Democrats, and O'Connor, a former Ohio Lt. governor, is a Republican.
Cuyahoga County, which includes the predominantly Black city of Cleveland, is roughly 29 percent Black.
Its public officials, and their affiliates, nearly all Democrats , have been under a public corruption probe for over three years with the investigation and subsequent prosecutions bringing over 50 convictions or guilty pleas including two former common pleas judges, former county auditor Frank Russo, and former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who was also the chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party.
The current form of county government, which voters approved, replaced the 3 member Board of Commissioners and six other elected positions, including sheriff, auditor and treasurer with a Cuyahoga County executive and 11-member county council.
The county prosecutor's positions remains an elected one, with former common pleas judge Tim McGinty winning the Democratic primary and facing long shot independent candidate Ed Wade, who is Black, in November.
Research initiated by the Cleveland NAACP but ignored by its officials and Fuerst herself reveals that Blacks convicted of crimes in the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, including felonies, get harsher sentences than similarly situated Whites for the same crimes.
Only three of those judges are Black.
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