Felony bond set for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's grandson

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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

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. 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. By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-Frank Q. Jackson, the 24-year-old grandson of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, turned himself in to Parma police at 3 am Sunday morning in response to a warrant issued last week out of Cleveland, and in regards to an unrelated traffic stop in Parma late Saturday night of Jan 23 that turned contentious when he decided to flee police and took them on a high speed car chase that crossed city lines into Cleveland and reached speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. The Cleveland warrant was issued on a first degree misdemeanor charge of domestic violence that stemmed from a Dec. 18 incident in which he is alleged to have struck his girlfriend, who is also the mother of his child, in the head and face after a verbal altercation over baby diapers. The Parma incident is more serious, by some standards. According to police, the younger Jackson, who is actually the Black mayor's step grandson, was pulled over by Parma police Saturday night shortly before midnight, allegedly for tinted windows. After purportedly agreeing to a police search of his car he took off in his automobile before it could be searched by police. The two White police officers present at the traffic stop grabbed him after he would not exit his car as allegedly ordered and, according to police body cams and a dash cam, one of the cops hung on to him temporarily as his car pulled away. The cop at issue was not hurt, a Parma police spokesperson later said. Though Parma police were in hot pursuit after he fled following Saturday night's traffic stop, the younger Jackson, who is Black, was able to escape them after he reached Cleveland's west side near Steel-Yard Commons. He turned himself in at the Parma Police Station early Sunday morning. He was cited for having tinted windows and charged in Parma with failure to comply with a police officer's order, a fourth degree felony. He was transferred from the Parma jail to the Cuyahoga County Jail on Monday. The county jail, where some 10 inmates have died in the last three years, at least one of them murdered, houses Cleveland municipal Court inmates as well as county jail inmates, and inmates from a few other area suburban municipalities, usually those sentenced in applicable suburban courts to jail for 10 days or more. Ohio law requires a felony sentence for a prison term. His bond in the Parma case was set at $50,000 on Monday by a Parma judge, a relatively high bond for the fourth degree felony charge that carries a sentence of up to 18 months in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. The case, more specifically the felony and misdemeanor charge out of Parma, was then bound over from Parma to the general division common pleas court in the county, which hears felonies, among other legal matters. The misdemeanor charge for tented windows now pending in the common pleas court could likely end up back in Parma since common pleas judges in Ohio traditionally lack jurisdiction to hear misdemeanors except as visiting judges in municipal courts. The general division common pleas judges in the county, 34 of them and only three of them Black, usually reduce high bonds issued by municipal courts once the cases are bound over to the common pleas court, which means that the younger Jackson's bond could likely be reduced at his upcoming arraignment. While failure to comply with a police officer's order is typically prosecuted as a misdemeanor offense in most cases in Ohio, certain aggravating factors can make the alleged crime a felony, such as fleeing and eluding after committing a felony, or after causing serious harm. Parma is a largely White Cleveland suburb, and the seventh largest city in Ohio behind Dayton. Cleveland's four-term mayor who is up for reelection this year, Mayor Jackson has not commented publicly on the most recent incidents involving his troubled grandson. Frank Q. Jackson is already on probation relative to a plea deal before Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell last year that came following a 2019 indictment on felonious assault, abduction charges and two counts of failure to comply with police in which he was accused of punching and choking a young 18-year-old Black  woman, and striking  her with a metal truck hitch. In that case he agreed to a plea deal and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in exchange for dismissal of the felonious assault and other charges. In turn, O'Donnell handed him a suspended 90 day sentence and put him on probation for 18 months. The mayor, who has said he will announce sometime this month whether he will seek reelection to an unprecedented fifth term, said publicly last year regarding the younger Jackson's 2019 assault incident that he supports his grandson and other family members just like other people do. What if any punishment will come to the younger Jackson by Judge O'Donnell if he is convicted or takes a plea deal in his two most recent cases remains to be seen since he is currently on probation. A Democrat like Mayor Jackson, O'Donnell has lost three bids since 2014 for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, including a failed attempt last year to unseat Republican Supreme Court Justice Sharon Kennedy. The controversial judge remains under fire by activists, some Black leaders and the Black community after he acquitted since fired Cleveland cop Michael Brelo in 2015 of two counts of voluntary manslaughter for gunning down unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell with 49 bullets in 2012 following a high speed car chase from downtown Cleveland to neighboring East Cleveland.

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Last Updated on Monday, 20 September 2021 11:05