Pictured are former Akron Police Captain Douglas Prade, his murdered ex wife Dr. Margo Prade (in red blouse with necklace) and Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh
By Kathy Wray Coleman,editor-in-chief
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
AKRON, Ohio-The Ohio 9th District Court of Appeals on Wednesday reversed a Summit County trial court ruling that in 2013 freed former Akron police capt. Douglas Prade from prison and Prade yesterday was ordered back behind bars by Common Pleas Judge Christine Croce, only to get a stay by the Ohio Supreme Court hours after he reported to the Summit County Jail.
Akron is a city some 30 miles south of Cleveland and the native home of NBA basketball icon and Miami Heat power forward LeBron James.
Prade's attorney said yesterday that he will appeal the appellate decision to the Ohio Supreme Court and Prade successfully appealed the judicial order that resulted in a stay by the state's high court. For now the convicted killer of a woman is a free man and the stay is in effect, unless lifted, until the Ohio Supreme Court decides where to hear Prade's appeal.
Prade, 67, was convicted in 1998 of murdering ex-wife Dr. Margo Prade, 41 at her death and a well respected Akron medical doctor slated at the time to marry a local attorney.
The popular Black doctor was found dead outside of her medical office in a mini-van in November 1997. Douglas Prade has two daughters with Margo Prade. She was shot six times and had a bite mark on her arm, the coronor said.
Margo Prade's sister, Veronica Sadler told reporters yesterday that the back-and-forth- actions by the court around her sister's death have a circus atmosphere and that she has developed "post-traumatic stress."
Douglas Prade served 15 years in prison of a life sentence until 2013 when Summit County common pleas retired visiting judge Judy Hunter exonerated him on DNA evidence. At issue was a bite mark that prosecutors say proved Prade was the killer.
Prade's lawyers argued at trial that prosecutors' evidence was circumstantial and could not link the former police captain to the murder of his former wife.
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who fought against the high court's order for a stay from prison of Prade and is internationally known and a hard-nose prosecutor, particularly on the murders of women and others, told Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper, that the fight for justice for Margo Prade is far from over.
It is rare though that a defendant who loses a murder case gets to hang out as a free man, an indication, some say, that Douglas Prade must still have connections with the Akron Police Department.
And if past behavior has anything to do with it, the zealous Walsh will be working overtime to get justice for Margo Prade and her family.
Some Ohio community activists, led by the Imperial Women Activists Group of greater Cleveland, object to retired visiting judges handpicked and assigned by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor and say that many of them are corrupt and might not be of sound mind and body. They are pushing a pending bill , House Bill 216, for Ohio trial court judges in multi-judge courts to at all times be assigned and re-assigned to court cases by random draw. Activists also want physical and mental exams for the retired judges, many that make in excess of $500 daily traveling around the state and presiding over criminal and civil court cases. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
