By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com -CLEVELAND, Ohio - Greater Cleveland community activists, the same groups that have repeatedly picketed jail conditions and called for the ouster of Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst earlier this year, and again last week, took to the streets again today, Oct 8, marching from Public Square in downtown Cleveland to the Justice Center for a Criminal Justice Council meeting.
At the Justice Center rally groups also called out no good judges like Fuerst.
"Judge Fuerst is denying people speedy trials, " said activist Alfred Porter Jr of Black on Black Crime at the rally at the Justice Center today, Porter also calling out crooked common pleas judges Joe Russo and Daniel Gaul, and the legal system as a whole.
Porter spoke against the jail conditions and jail authorities, and carried a protest sign that read "Vote Out Judge Fuerst."
At the Criminal Justice Council meeting activists and former inmates done in at the jail called for reforms, more social workers and improved jail conditions, the county jail the second largest in the state.
At issue are nine recent inmate deaths, findings of illegal and unconstitutional jail conditions by authorities, a host of indictments in addition to Ivey, including several jail guards and the former jail director, and, among other activists' concerns, including bail reform and unjust activity by judges and prosecutors, among others.
Today's protest follows a picket at the Justice Center last Thursday at the sentencing of former county jail Warden Eric Ivey, who is Black and was demoted to associate warden after he was indicted on felony and other charges earlier.
Fuerst was picked Thursday too, and she spared the warden jail, the seasoned judge suspending a 180-day jail sentence and handing him a year's probation for his guilty plea in August to two misdemeanors of obstruction of justice and falsification.
Ivey resigned, effective immediately, as part of his plea deal.
The judge also gave him 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine, and said he must agree to snitch on others as part of his plea deal, or she will jail him.
Though public records show Fuerst herself is corrupt, she told Ivey at sentencing that he breached the public's trust and that she is disappointed in him, the Black man and former warden responding "yes mam."
Activists have repeatedly demanded that Judge Fuerst, who is up for reelection next year, be ousted from the bench, including at a May 23, 2019 Justice Center rally in addition to last week's rally at the former warden's sentencing, and at today's protest.
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.
It is documented that Fuerst is denying indigent counsel to poor Blacks by removing them from cases and not replacing them, usually for retaliatory or other ulterior motives, the right to representative counsel in serious criminal cases of which is mandated by statute, and per the 6th Amendment.
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 fellow judges 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.
Further, she is refusing to journalize when Blacks show at trial and cops who claim they have assaulted them do not, an alleged effort, says sources, to manipulate speedy trial rights. And, she is issuing orders for Black defendants to be jailed if they insult or take up too much time of White indigent counsel she handpicks for felony cases before her, and if they ask them to file motions that she and assistant county White prosecutors deem unnecessary.
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.
