Former Cleveland councilman Basheer Jones

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor

Investigative article

CLEVELAND, Ohio — After taking a plea deal and pleading guilty late last year to federal public corruption charges and agreeing to pay restitution, former Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones is facing sentencing on Tues, April 1 before U.S. District Court Judge J. Phillip Calabreze, a Republican appointed to the federal bench in the Northern District of Ohio in 2020 by President Donald Trump during his first term in office. And while prosecutors are calling for prison time, some greater Cleveland Black leaders, like former HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge, and some Black community activists say probation is more appropriate, given Jones' overall record in support of the community and because similarly situated White elected officials traditionally get off easy and often are not even prosecuted at all, data show.

Jones, 40 years old, Black, and a devout Muslim, was an east side councilman from 2017-2021.  He did not seek reelection to city council in 2021, instead choosing to run for mayor, a race he lost in a crowded non-partisan primary that yielded a win for current Mayor Justin Bibb, who went on to overwhelmingly beat then council president and second place primary finisher Kevin Kelley in the general run-off election.

The first Muslim to serve on city council, Jones was charged in a two-count information with conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud for using his role as a public official for personal financial gain by allegedly seeking to defraud multiple community stakeholders out of more than $200,000.

According to court documents, from about December 2018 to June 2021 Jones allegedly misrepresented and concealed material facts to induce nonprofit organizations to enter into a variety of arrangements that would benefit him and his romantic partner co-conspirator, who has since been charged.

Prosecutors say Jones’ schemes were devised to line his pockets by deceiving nonprofit entities into making payments toward projects they thought were for the community’s benefit, but research reveals that the situation is more complicated than it appears since city council, per city ordinance, must approve and sign off on community development projects, larger and more lucrative projects of which routinely go to White developers without question.

The true profiteers of Cleveland's community development projects are White developers, sources said Thursday, and data show, and they rarely, if at all, face prosecution.

Nonetheless, Blacks like former Ohio 11th congressional district congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of greater Cleveland, also secretary of HUD (Housing and Urban Development)  when former President Joe Biden held office, want leniency for Jones, saying he lost his way but does not deserve prison.

In a letter to the judge, among supportive letters from dozens of people, including intellectual scholar, famed raced-based author, activist and former independent candidate for president Dr. Cornel West, Fudge wrote that Basheer Jones, her former protege, is a "decent man with a big heart and a love of people."

Some Black community activists of Cleveland also say the former councilman deserves a second chance and should get probation, and that a double standard remains regarding how Black men are treated at all levels of the legal system in comparison to their White, male counterparts. Institutional racism, they say, is primarily at the core of all they do to Blacks, and reforms are direly needed, not withstanding compliance with Civil rights laws and other applicable authorities that preclude race-based prosecutions and racial disparities in sentencing.

"It is unfair," said activist Alfred Porter Jr of Black on Black Crime Inc. "Black men are treated more differently and more harshly than White men by our criminal justice system, and we want it to stop as well as an overhaul of the entire system."

A study commissioned by the United States Sentencing Commission found that Black male offenders received sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders, and were less likely to receive probation unlike White men.

By Kathy Wray Coleman: Kathy Wray Coleman is a longtime Cleveland journalist, blogger, digital and social media reporter, and seasoned investigative reporter

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com