Pictured are suspended and convicted Bedford Municipal Court Judge Harry Jacob (in light blue shirt), Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan (in judicial robe), and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty  (in red-colored polkadotted tie)

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief,

CLEVELAND,  Ohio- Greater Cleveland community activists women are joining Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty in calling for jail time for a suspended pimp-type Bedford Municipal Court judge who last week was found guilty of crimes in office, five misdemeanors in fact, including solicitation and falsification.

The unprecedented convictions came following a four-week trial before Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Brian Corrigan, who got mixed reviews for his decision to throw out all of the felony charges against Judge Harry Jacob, and several other misdemeanor charges, some saying that Corrigan was fair, and others saying he fixed aspects of the case to protect malfeasance by another White male judge.

Jacob is scheduled for sentencing on October 15, and it is unlikely that he will return to the bench, sources say. He faces a possible fine and up to 60 days on each of the three convictions of solicitation, third degree misdemeanors, and up to a year for the two convictions of falsification of public court records, a theft offense that carries up to six months in jail.

"He also did more than violate the public's trust, he raped it," said  McGinty of Jacob in a statement after the verdict. "He disgraced this city and demeaned the judiciary of this state. He deserves a stay in jail, a very long one."

McGinty also called Jacob a pimp and said that when he patronized the nearby brothel, that "the pimp and his employees naturally felt protected."

Greater Cleveland community activists agree with McGinty, a rare posture from activists that often find him overzealous and pro-police to the detriment of the Black community.

"He [Jacob] needs to be  jailed and should have been jailed a long time ago,'"said Community activist Ada Averyhart, 80, who spoke on the issue on behalf of  greater Cleveland grassroots groups the Imperial Women Coalition and the Carl Stokes Brigade. "We also want him disbarred."

Jacob, 56 and a Republican, and currently suspended from the bench but still drawing his $114,000 annual tax payer salary,  was charged in a 27-count indictment last year with a host of crimes, including felony counts of bribery, obstruction of justice, and possessing criminal tools, and misdemeanor charges of solicitation, promoting prostitution and falsification of municipal court records

Corrigan, however, threw out many of the more serious charges, including each and every felony, including bribery, obstruction of justice and possession of criminal tools, a possible favor, sources say, to a fellow judge of greater Cleveland that McGinty claims was able to erase evidence from his computer before a warrant was served, among other strategies to allegedly obstruct justice.

Corrigan instead found Jacob guilty of three misdemeanor charges of solicitation and two charges of manipulation of court records, the latter of which are serious and reveal a betrayal of the public's trust, prosecutors and community activists say. How many court records he got away with falsifying without any charges filed is also at issue, community activists say. They say that the integrity of the entire Bedford Municipal Court, which hears traffic cases, misdemeanors and civil lawsuits with damages so at or below $15,000, has been compromised and that Jacob's crimes are merely a symptom of a larger problem.

Jacob, of Solon, Ohio, was accused of manipulating , poor, drug addicted women, some of them minorities , and paying some of them in excess of $275 each whip for sex.

His lawyers told the trial court  judge that while their disgraced client did solicit sex, he did not use his influence on the bench to perpetuate his own sexual addiction, something McGinty said is an outright lie.

"He did more than sleep with prostitutes and do favors for them at court, he took advantage of poor young drug-addicted women, at least one of whom had been molested as a child," said McGinty.

The city of Bedford is a suburb of Cleveland and has a population of some 13,000 people, and is roughly 44 percent Black.

The Bedford court handles cases from 14 different diverse locations including Bedford itself, neighboring Bedford Heights, and Chagrin Falls, Bentleyville, Chagrin Township, Cleveland Metro Parks, Glen Willow, Highland Hills, Moreland Hills, North Randall, Oakwood Village, Orange, Solon and Warrensville Heights. They are all among the 59 municipalities, villages and townships of Cuyahoga County, Ohio's largest of 88 counties, and of which is roughly 29 percent Black.

Jacob, say his foes, is so flagrantly disrespectful of the law that anything that goes on in the Bedford Municipal Court, particularly where Blacks are concerned, is suspect, and wreaks of a prejudicial and hostile judicial environment detrimental to the community and to the administration of justice.

The suspended piece of a judge awaits disciplinary proceedings before the seven-member predominantly Republican and all White Ohio Supreme Court, which is led by Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, and has gained a reputation in some political and legal circles of being unfair to Black and female judges and lawyers facing discipline and traditionally lenient on similarly situated White male judges and lawyers.

Whether the federal government will intervene and take over the Bedford court where Blacks are disproportionately prosecuted, given the malfeasance and clear danger to the Black community and others, remains to be seen.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)