Pictured are former Cuyahoga County Jail warden Eric Ivey (wearing eye glasses), Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst, Common Pleas Judge Joe Russo, and activist Art McKoy (wearing turban)
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com -CLEVELAND, Ohio - Former Cuyahoga County Jail Warden Eric Ivey, who is Black and was demoted to associate warden after he was indicted on several charges earlier this year, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors on Monday before Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst, Ivey among some nine jail affiliates indicted following nine inmate deaths since last June, also including former jail director Ken Mills and some six jail guards. (Editor's note: Cleveland activists will protest before Ivey's sentencing and will attend the sentencing hearing: CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE FOR THE OCTOBER 3, 2019 PROTEST AT THE JUSTICE CENTER IN DOWNTOWN CLEVELAND OUTSIDE OF THE CUYAHOGA COUNTY JAIL )
The former warden is accused, among other illegal activities, of ordering correction officers to turn off their body cams relative to a drug overdose that left an inmate dead , jail and county officials, including the former sheriff and current county executive Armond Budish, also accused of ignoring the deaths until the FBI stepped in.
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 ignoring and covering up inmate deaths, rodent and roach infested facilities, the housing of pregnant women on mats on the floor, withholding food for punishment and assault on female and other inmates, inhumane and unconstitutional.
Cleveland activists are upset with the plea deal, and with Fuerst, and say they will picket.
They say the judge gave the former warden a pass because the victims of his jail mishaps are disproportionately Black and overwhelming poor, though most of the dead inmates were White, sources saying he ran the jail like a modern day plantation,
White inmates were shown favoritism, particularlyby jail sergeants and corporals who do jail cell placements when inmates are booked in, most of the corporals, and the sergeants, for both men and women inmates, White men.
"Judge Fuerst accepting a misdemeanor plea deal from the former warden of the county jail is unacceptable and we invite people to the September 30 protest against the former warden and Judge Fuerst the day of sentencing," said longtime activist Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc.
Five of the nine inmate deaths were purportedly the result of suicide.
Special prosecutor Matthew Meyer, on behalf of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, whose office replaced that of County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley per O'Malley's request, said Monday in court that Ivey's plea deal requires that he resign as associate warden, effective the date of sentencing, and later testify or snitch on other culprits as called upon by prosecutors.
Prosecutors also dismissed a charge of tampering with evidence, a third degree felony.
"Your honor, as a condition of the plea, the defendant would agree to testify truthfully and give truthful statements in any proceeding in which he is called upon to do so concerning the Cuyahoga County Jail or the operation of Cuyahoga County government," said Meyer to Fuerst.
The judge accepted the plea deal and set sentencing for 10:30 am on Oct. 3 in courtroom 15B, activists to picket beginning at 9:30 am the day of sentencing on the steps of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in Cleveland.
Fuerst is also under fire for denying Blacks and activists their speedy trial rights, and scheduling trials not journalized or put in writing and then arbitrarily jailing Black defendants maliciously accused of crimes against racist White cops when they do not appear for her unconstitutional trials.
Public records also reveal that she is ordering Blacks to trials she schedules in under 24 hours without formal notice, and then jailing them via arrest warrants if they fail to appear. And, data show that she is covering up alleged indictment fixing by prosecutors and the clerk of courts, grand jury tampering, and falsification of court records, much of it with the help of corrupt attorneys she handpicks and appoints to felony cases of indigent Blacks.
Activists want Fuerst, 66 and up for reelection to another six-year term in 2020, voted out of office and demanded such at a rally on May 23 outside of the county jail.
Also at issue is Common Pleas Judge Joe Russo, activists said, who leads all of the 34 largely White general division common pleas judges in prolonging cases of poor and indigent defendants who waive their right to a speedy trial and remain in the county jail unable to post bond, the judge also accused of falsification with the clerk of courts office to cover up the absence of a required preliminary hearing in felony cases, among other malfeasance type activity.
Russo will be picketed too, said activists, his case docket a disgrace where some poor and indigent defendants wait years to go to trial, a strategy, say sources, to secure plea deals for prosecutors from innocent Black people.
A search committee for a permanent sheriff was appointed by embattled Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, who appoints the county sheriff per the county charter and is under investigation also, authorities confiscating his office computer cell phone and other materials when his downtown headquarters office was twice raided this year
Meanwhile, Sgt. David Schillings, a 15-year veteran with the sheriff's department, was named the acting sheriff to replace Pinkney
Clifford Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff, resigned Aug. 2 after four years as sheriff.
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.
But sources say he fears a potential indictment on criminal charges and has allegedly hired an out of state attorney in that respect
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.
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.
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, the county's last elected sheriff who was forced to resign after being convicted of crimes in office.
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.
