Former Democratic Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown

Democratic Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who allegedly wants Councilman Reed gone allegedly because Reed is outspoken and the mayor cannot control him

From the Metro Desk of Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper (www.clevelandurbannews.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed is facing a third DUI case after former Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, also general counsel for the Call and Post Newspaper, tricked him into pleading guilty to a second DUI previously as his attorney even though police did not witness him driving the car and he was instead sitting in his car while intoxicated with the keys in the ignition, which is a lesser charge of having physical control, a charge which does not require jail time. He served 10 days in the county jail, complements of Forbes.

The lesser charge is applicable because people are less at risk to be harmed when the defendant is not actually driving the car.

And Reed might be in a position seek to vacate his guilty plea and conviction in the second DUI case because the so-called-judge sent down by then appointed  former Ohio Supreme  Court Justice Eric Brown, a Democrat who subsequently lost his seat to now Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, was not even a retired visiting judge as required by the Ohio Constitution because she (Mary Grace Tromboli) was once a Toledo judge but did not seek reelection and was only 51 years old at the time.

An investigation by Cleveland Urban News.Com reveals  further that Trimboli was often used at the Ohio Supreme Court level to go from city to city to harass enemies of the Ohio Supreme Court, usually Democrats. Since Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson was targeting Reed at the time of his second DUI because he is outspoken and Forbes, 81, was getting monies for his law firm and ads for the Call and Post through the mayor, he allegedly decided to sellout against the naive Reed while simultaneously pretending to be a father figure to the now 51-year-old city lawmaker.

Community Activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who was writing articles for the Call and Post at the time and had done so since 1993, said that she tried to warn Reed but he would not listen and that an article published by the Black newspaper that she wrote on the issue was manipulated to take out the fact that having physical  control of a car while intoxicated and not driving is what Reed should have been charged with.

Coleman said that when she contacted Chief Assistant City Prosecutor Victor Perez at the time to inquire why the city was charging people erroneously he said the city gets more money by charging people in Reed's situation with DUI rather than the lesser charge of having physical control of the car and not driving it. She said that she has since been repeatedly harassed and jailed, including a plethora of fake charges brought by since fired city law director Robert Triozzi on behalf of Jackson, whom Coleman describes as ruthless, vicious and anti-Black since he has become mayor.

The city lost on those charges of  aggravated disorderly conduct, making false alarms and obstruction of officials business in a trial in May 2009 before then Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, who was handpicked for the case against Coleman by chief judge Ron Adrine for the Democratic mayor.

Keough had been endorsed by Jackson for a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals and was allegedly assigned to fix cases for the city in return. Coleman said that Keough acted a fool at trial and served as both judge and prosecutor, all because of her zeal to win a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals.

Call and Post officials pretended to back her, said Coleman, but then turned around and endorsed Keough, who in return laughed and called the media to her courtroom and said all they do is play the race card, but only after she had won the appellate seat in 2010 that she wanted at any cost. And, said Coleman, her home was broken into in hopes of finding two separate and manipulated transcripts of the trial that could possibly get Keough disbarred, though Coleman said that both are under lock and key in another city.

Coleman, however, was convicted of resisting arrest even though the arresting deputy sheriff never even accused her of it and did not even testify at trial. This was after Keough allegedly tainted the jury and fixed the case, and an appeal was useless because Keough, who is now being sued by Coleman on the misdemeanor charges she won on along with the city and a host of others,  got her Democratic friends at the Ohio Eight District Court of Appeals where she now sits on the bench to allegedly fix the appeal and then had her colleagues defame Coleman on the Internet. Coleman said that she has been repeatedly threatened by Call and Post officials and members of the Old Black Political Guard have had her repeatedly arrested on fake misdemeanor charges She said that O'Connor is now stepping in to harass her too because she allegedly wants to enjoy case fixing as the current chief justice, though she campaigned on a judicial reform platform.

Reed was arrested last month on his third DUI case, and like his second DUI case,  Chief Judge Adrine had all the judges decline to take the case in the Cleveland Municipal Court, allegedly so that O'Connor could handpick retired visiting judge Larry Allen of  Willoughby to allegedly get Reed for Mayor Jackson and others. And this is though state law requires that retired visiting judges must come from the jurisdictional territory of the court and Willoughby  is not in the territory of the Cleveland Municipal Court.

Reed attorney Anthony Jordan is a former chief city prosecutor himself, though Reed has added a second attorney to police Jordan, who allegedly has been asked to "be a good boy" by prosecutor Perez when he represents Blacks in the Cleveland Municipal Court.

Jackson has appointed not one  Black as law director, safety director, chief prosecutor, chief of police, EMS commissioner or chief of staff, though Cleveland is roughly 58 percent Black.

Moreover, refusing to hear Reed's case allegedly because city council votes on the court's  budget  is not even a qualifying measure for Cleveland Municipal Court judges to recuse themselves where it is not a conflict and judges are to have a presumption of fairness. In fact, his first DUI case was legitimately heard by former Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Joan Synenburg, who is now a common pleas court judge. She gave Reed probation and Mayor Jackson allegedly wants to ensure that he gets enough jail time relative to the third DUI case so that his ally Council President Martin Sweeney, who has stripped Reed of all committees before he has been given the opportunity for a trial in violation, some say, of due process of law, can oust Reed from city council.

The FEDS are in Cleveland to investigate malfeasance in the Cleveland Police Department and Coleman and other community activists want judges in the  appellate, common pleas and municipal courts of Cuyahoga County investigated too for what they say is gross impropriety to the detriment of the Black community and others.

Coleman said that she is still being harassed for writing about judicial malfeasance and has been told to "leave town," a typical strategy of  group members of the Old Black Political Guard when they cannot get their way. And one member, said Coleman, actually called her elderly father in her home town of Louisville, Ky and told him to get her home because she "would get killed."

Coleman said that when she went home because her father was upset the person, a Call and Post affiliate, told her that she wanted her to stop sending emails and to shut down Cleveland Urban News.Com, which is now Ohio's leading online Black newspaper with an online readership that quadruples that of the struggling Call and Post.

The Call and Post is a Black weekly distributed in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio that is published by international boxing promoter Don King, a Cleveland native.

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