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Ohio state Senator Nickie Antonio applauds House passage of legislation to modernize Ohio's rape code to address the exemption for spousal rape ..... By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

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COLUMBUS, Ohio-Today, Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (pictured) (D-Lakewood), who's 23rd district includes 14 of Cleveland's 17 wards, released the following statement in support of the passage of House Bill 161, Representatives Jessica Miranda (D- Forest Park) and Brett Hillyer's (R-Uhrichsville) legislation to end the spousal exemption for rape and other sex crimes.

"I commend the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Legal Aid of Cleveland, Representatives Miranda and Hillyer and the countless advocates who have fought to bring Ohio to the 21st century and end the archaic exemption of marital rape," said Antonio. "These changes must be made to modernize Ohio's rape code and give survivors of sex crimes the justice they deserve. I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to ensure this bill reaches the governor's desk."

State Sen. Antonio previously introduced Senate Bill 162 in 2019 and Senate Bill 198 in 2021 to eliminate the spousal exemption for rape and end the statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault, respectively.

House Bill 161 now awaits committee assignment in the Ohio Senate.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 29 November 2023 22:18

Cuyahoga County Public Defender Cullen Sweeney is conspiring with Judge Fuerst to deny Blacks indigent counsel and get illegal warrants to jail them saying he wants Backs jailed before they get indigent counsel....Activists want criminal charges

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Cullen Sweeney (pictured)

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 1

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 2

CLICK HERE TO READ INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 3

Staff article: investigative article Part 5

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cuyahoga County public defender's office is conspiring with Common Pleas Judge Nancy A. Fuerst, a former administrative and presiding judge of the 34-member, largely White general division common pleas bench in the county, to deny indigent Blacks counsel after she issues illegal warrants to jail them in the county jail where more than 20 inmates have died since 2018.

"We sent an attorney to talk to Judge Fuerst and the judge said she will appoint counsel after the person is jailed," said Chief Public defender Cullen Sweeney, a judicial wannabe who ran unsuccessfully for common pleas judge in 2012.

Activists say the people she jails are harassed in jail and threatened with shanks and want to know how many of the dead inmates had cases before the judge.

Asked his position on indigent counsel when the judge's warrants are illegal, Sweeney said indigent Blacks have no right to indigent counsel even if the warrants are illegal, and that they should report to the county jail and then hope the judge will do right by them.

" They either report to jail or the warrants will remain," he said in an angry, seemingly racist tone, adding that he too believes that Blacks should be jailed and denied indigent counsel if judges like Fuerst, 72 and White, deem it necessary.

But prior to an attorney from his office speaking privately and ex parte with the crooked and racist judge his position was that Blacks have a legal right to indigent counsel against Fuerst and that her warrants and her refusal to jounalize when Blacks appear for trial and her acts of faking future trial dates and issuing warrants when Blacks fail to appear are all illegal.

The sudden switch, says activists, merits a criminal complaint against Sweeney, who is White, and is indicative of public corruption and racism, and his office conspiring with White common pleas judges to deny poor Blacks indigent counsel.

Simply put, Sweeney's racist standpoint is that he wants Black people caged in the county jail no matter what, which is proof, say activists, that he dislikes Blacks and is corrupt and unfit as chief public defender, and that he should be replaced.

Research reveals that public corruption and racism are rampant in the county's troubled legal system where judges, prosecutors and police do as they please to Blacks with impunity, whether its gunning them down while they are unarmed, maliciously prosecuting them, or fixings indictments and court proceedings to get illegal convictions in malicious criminal cases.

Fuerst is also ordering Blacks to trial in a day, knowing that that is not time enough for the clerks office to get notice to them and she is then issuing warrants, and Sweeney's office is agreeing with that illegal posture too.

The judge, says defense attorneys, is out of control and often cannot even remember the names of defendants who come before her unless, of course, they are Black and she has it in for them.

The purpose of the judge's erratic behavior, say activists, is to help the prosecution win and to deny Black defendants a speedy and  fair trial, sources say, which violates the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution as to the mandate for a fair trial to all defendants facing the state as an adversary in cases that can result in a denial of liberty rights.

Corrupt White assistant prosecutors say nothing and are glad when Judge Fuerst issues her now infamous warrants against Black defendants in an effort to get around speedy trial rights, and to tamper with records, which is a felony crime under Ohio law.

According to previous investigations as to our ongoing series on county public corruption and racism here at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader. Fuerst is also refusing to jounalize when Blacks appear for trial and cops accusing them of crimes fail to show. She then  issues illegal warrants for future fake  trial dates not documented or journalized and issued without notice. All of it, say sources, is tampering with records and falsification to get around the right to a a speedy trial and to get illegal convictions against Black people

Indigent Blacks have a legal right to counsel under state law and  a constitutional right under the due process guarantees under the Ohio and U. S. Constitutions.

Activists say that because Sweeney and the public defender's office are conspiring with Judge Fuerst to deny Black people indigent counsel he will be added to the citizens criminal complaint that they are preparing against Fuerst seeking criminal charges for interfering with the Civil Rights of Black people, a crime under Ohio law.

The crooked judge purportedly told the public defender's office that sought the lifting of the illegal warrants that she wants Blacks impacted by her warrants jailed and that thereafter she will bring them to court without counsel for one of her biased hearings. But Black victims of her judicial scams say they are afraid to appear before her without counsel and that she is out of control and obsessed with getting Blacks she does not like jailed for racist prosecutors and cops who are targeting them, and to perpetuate the ongoing racism and county public corruption that plague the county's common pleas court.

This is a continuing investigation of Cuyahoga County government corruption and racism against Blacks in the county

Last Updated on Wednesday, 27 December 2023 01:46

Black Lives Matter, anti-Cuyahoga County jail activists to protest outside of the county jail in Cleveland against a slated new jail , jail conditions, and 4 recent inmate deaths in a jail where several inmates have died since 2018.-Clevelandurbannews.co

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Staff article:


CLEVELAND, Ohio- A coalition of community activists upset over the recent deaths of jail inmates and a new multi-million dollar Cuyahoga County Jail complex slated for construction by county council will hold a short rally and press conference on Monday, Nov. 27 at 2 pm in downtown Cleveland at the Justice Center outside of the jail on Lakeside  Avenue near Ontario Street.

 

Family members of inmates who have died or have been murdered in the county jail are invited to speak briefly too, organizers said.


In a press release to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, activists, both Blacks and Whites alike, said they demand answers from County Executive Chris Ronayne, who was overwhelmingly elected and took office this year for his first term, new County Sheriff Harold Pretel, and county council members regarding four inmate deaths this year in the county jail, which also houses Cleveland Municipal Court inmates and some federal district court inmates, among others. Pretel is a former Cleveland deputy police chief.

 

Activists say that they will also use the occasion to address the recent police shooting of a community member during a wellness check in Garfield Heights, a largely Black Cleveland suburb.


According to the press release, the coalition includes the Cuyahoga County Jail Coalition, No New Jail Cuyahoga, Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Inter-Religious Taskforce on Central America, and REACH.


Activists said that the protest will demand transparency and accountability for the four inmate deaths, immediate and substantive changes to the conditions in the jail, and a moratorium on the sale of the Justice Complex and the building of a new $750 million jail complex until the systemic problems with leadership and staff are solved.


"We can't build our way out of systemic violence. It's time for care, not cages," the coalition said on its Facebook event page.


The recent inmate deaths, and a score of inmate overdoses, show that jail officials are not adequately addressing medical needs of community members who are incarcerated, say activists. Furthermore, they say that two of the four deaths are under investigation due to questionable circumstances around their deaths, including a more recent case of the death of Rogelio Latorre.


Cleveland.com wrote in an article that "It is unclear why Latorre was in the jail. Local and federal court dockets do not list him, and county spokespersons did not return messages seeking comment." This is also fueling the controversy.


Since the stunning US Marshals Report released publicly in 2018 that found atrocious and inhumane conditions for inmates, there have been some 27 known deaths in the jail, say activists. And in 2022 alone they say there were seven known deaths.

 

What the actual jail inmate death count is remains to be seen, says sources, particularly since falsification and tampering with records by common pleas judges, prosecutors and court clerks are rampant, and go on unchecked.


A new jail complex will not solve the staffing and leadership problems that these deaths and notorious jail conditions allegedly expose, activists say.


No New Jail Cuyahoga and REACH say they will speak about the tragic shooting of a community member by police during a wellness check in Garfield Heights, where the new jail will be located..


The new jail, say anti-jail activists, was rushed, is non-transparent, and is a costly project that will not do anything to help change conditions for incarcerated people in the county, a disproportionate number of them Black.


Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest of its 88 counties, It is roughly 29 percent Black and is a Democratic stronghold, as is Cleveland, a majority Black major American city dealing with increased violent crime and heightened murders of Black women that have doubled since the pandemic, research shows.


Activists also want something done as to the malicious prosecutions of Blacks pushed by racist cops and prosecutors and the blatant and unconstitutional denial of indigent counsel to Black people by White common pleas judges on the take, and by the county, which is led by White folks too and has the oneness under state law to provide poor Blacks with appointed counsel, even when corrupt and racist judges fail to do so.


The judges, say activists, are a huge part of the problem as to jail overcrowding and Blacks and others jailed illegally and they want to know what role, if any, the judges play as to heightened jail deaths since 2018. White common pleas judges are denying indigent Blacks counsel so that if they are murdered in the jail by design it will be easier to cover-up the deaths, they say. And some inmates dying in jail are on quasi-death row instituted by judges and prosecutors, and before they are convicted of a crime. They say it is quasi capital punishment type activity and a by-product of county government racism and public corruption, and that its is pervasive.

 

Some community members fear that the county jail has become a death chamber for inmates, led by judges and prosecutors and as county officials and the public defender's office say nothing and do nothing..


One former jail inmate, who is Black and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being harmed, said she has been jailed in the county at least three times for nothing by racist and wicked White judges and racist White cops and was allegedly told by inmates via the most recent time she was jailed that she would eventually be killed. and that police, crooked prosecutors, and some crazy judges want her murdered to silence her.

 

"They want to get it done cleverly in here, and without getting caught," Black inmates said.

 

A county public corruption probe initiated by the FBI and other authorities more that 15 years ago that ultimately saw two common pleas judges and a host of others imprisoned remains in existence, sources say.


Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

Last Updated on Monday, 27 November 2023 19:23

Congresswoman Sykes and U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown celebrate groundbreaking of new $37 million Akron Metro RTA operations and maintenance facility .....By Clevelandurbannews.com Ohio's Black digital news media,

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Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

AKRON, Ohio — U.S. Representative Emilia Sykes (OH-13), an Akron Democrat and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) (both pictured),a Cleveland Democrat and Ohio's most prominent Democrat, joined local leaders on Monday to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new $37 million AKRON METRO RTA maintenance and operations facility located on its campus at 336 Kenmore Blvd.


Rep. Sykes and Sen. Brown helped METRO secure a Buses and Bus Facilities Grant for the construction of a new Maintenance and Operations Facility on its existing campus by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This investment was made possible through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), commonly known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.


"METRO RTA is a vital part of Summit County's infrastructure, providing reliable and accessible transportation options for our seniors, our students, and our children and families on their routes to school, doctors' appointments, work, and the grocery store. Thanks to the historic investment by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, METRO will be able to improve their transit services, better connecting our neighborhoods and creating opportunities for people in Ohio's 13th Congressional District," said Rep. Sykes. "As the only Ohioan on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I'll continue advocating for the federal support necessary to make the public transportation systems in our district the best in the country."


"This new facility means RTA will be able to not only fix buses faster, but ensure that fewer buses break down in the first place. That means better service for Akronites," said Sen. Brown. "Transit like RTA is ultimately about the dignity of work. It creates jobs, it connects people with jobs, and it attracts jobs."


The new facility will support METRO's current fleet of 226 revenue vehicles and 22 support vehicles as well as up to 330 Operations and Maintenance support staff. The existing facility, built in 1984, was sized to maintain 90 35‐foot fixed‐ route buses, in addition to 50 smaller Demand Response vehicles.


Sykes said in a statement to

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's leading Black digital newspaper that a facilities assessment study identified the existing facility as outmoded, undersized and having surpassed its useful life. This need, she said, was reaffirmed in METRO's 2020 Strategic Plan that identified the Project as METRO's highest priority facility investment.


The new facility will consist of a 107,138 square foot, LEED-certified steel-framed structure consisting of two main functional areas (Operations and Vehicle Maintenance), a new visitor parking lot, a reconfigured employee parking lot, and a Commercial Drivers' License training pad. It will be built on METRO-owned property at 336 Kenmore Blvd., immediately adjacent to METRO's existing facilities at 416 Kenmore Blvd.


 

 

Last Updated on Thursday, 23 November 2023 03:31

Suburban White cops in Cuyahoga County are being shielded from testifying at trial against Blacks they get indicted with prosecutors seeking remote testimony after they flee the state upon getting subpoenaed....One cop fled to Florida

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Tim McgintyStaff article-Investigative article Part 4

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 1

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 2

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 3

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutors under County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley are asking common pleas judges to let police officer witnesses in illegal prosecutions against Blacks skip trial and testify remotely at trials via Skype, which violates the right  of defendants to confrontation under the Ohio Rules of Evidence and the U.S Constitution, sources say.

Activists say this raises serious questions about the propriety of trial proceedings and that they do not trust remote testimony, given the ongoing public corruption in the common pleas court from indictment fixing to falsification, tampering with records and denial of indigent counsel to Black people. ( Editor's note: Former county prosecutor Tim McGinty, now a visiting judge for the 34- member, largely White common pleas general division court, used White, male grand jury foremen to help him get Blacks indicted who would not support him for reelection and then used them to fix indictments he disagreed with for political and other reasons and he used his friends to try to lure them to get arrested ).

In one case a suburban White cop in the county name Dale Orians left town and went to Florida to avoid a subpoena to testify and prosecutors, via a motion, asked Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst, the preciding judge in the case, if he could testify remotely from Florida. The reasons given for the request sound silly and are indicative of ongoing corruption in the case, activists say,.

Orians, according to public records, is breaking into the homes of Black women without a court order and stealing property per the directive of culprits, including  Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, who is accused of stealing homes from Blacks for crooked JPMorgan Chase Bank and judicially stalking Black women who fight back using cops, judges and prosecutors in suburban areas to arrest and prosecute them for nothing, though some are targets who opposed him relative to his three unsuccessful bids for a seat on the Ohio Supreme Court.

When O'Donnell lost one bid for the state supreme court against Judi French, a former state supreme court justice who black leaders and  activists supported over O'Donnell, Orians got a truck and broke into the  home without a court order and stole everything, including a red, convertible car from the garage . When asked about returning the property he stole without a court order he laughed and replied that "you will be in prison before you get your property back." Activist say he might be unbalanced, in addition to being corrupt and racist.

Thereafter, he lied to the grand jury for Mcginty and O'Donnell to get an illegal indictment against the Black victim and everything since then in the case has been illegal and improper, records show. Two judges and more than eight attorneys quit the case and the attorneys did absolutely no discovery, prosecutors said, an attempt, say sources, to keep the grand jury testimony and other evidence out of trial.

Data show that the absence of discovery, record tampering, ineffective assistance by indigent defense counsel, and prosecutorial and judicial misconduct are key to illegal convictions in the county by the state, most of the victims of whom are Black. But the extent to which some culprits will go to try to get Blacks is alarming, sources say.

Activists say that the main purpose of remote testifying for cops in common pleas court is to keep them from facing the community and people they have railroaded as to prosecutions that follow illegal and fixed indictments, and so that the recordings can be allegedly altered like fixed indictments. Also, say activists, the cops at issue are liars and cop criminals who lack the courage to follow through on their corruption per advice from union officials. Remote testimony, however, gives them a more convenient forum in which to lie on innocent defendants with the court's help, data show and sources say.

In one case  cop Orians told the grand jury via grand jury testimony that he wanted to shoot the Black woman who's home he had repeatedly robbed, testimony plagued with lies. After he failed to get the indictment he wanted former county prosecutor Tim McGinty and county clerks altered the indictment and added additional charges involving more police They then concealed the original indictment, which activists  had viewed online. The grand jury transcript also reveals that Orians testified to the grand jury that his then police chief, who has since be removed, sends him to go to the homes of Blacks targeted by Judge O'Donnell and others to get them without a warrant and that he then gathers a team of five or more White cops to help him carry out the mission, some of them now wanting out of the corruption and also refusing to testify at trial.

Orians was shielded from testifying in the case after he fled the state and went to Florida upon a subpoena from prosecutors who thereafter asked the judge in the case (Fuerst) if he could testify remotely by Skype. Blacks who fail to appear for unjournalized trial dates get a warrant and White cops cops who skip trial upon getting subpoenaed get favors as opposed to contempt proceedings from judges like Fuerst , say activists, who also say that there is a double standard for Blacks coupled with increased malfeasance and orchestrated public corruption on behalf of police and prosecutors,

Blacks who get away when police like Dale Orians come to their homes to harm them or gun them down, are indicted a year later and threatened in jail while awaiting trial, and records show that  they are denied indigent counsel and speedy and public trials by common pleas judges, as well an entourage of other constitutional and statutory requirements. And the cops come on foot to the homes so neighbors will not know what they are up to, Orians lying to the grand jury saying he came with patrol cars cars when he sought to harm his last Black victim, the one he said he wanted to shoot after telling the person to quit protesting over excessive force with Cleveland area activist Art Mckoy.

This is according to public records and a longitudinal investigation of county racism and public corruption by Ohio's most read Black digital news media (Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).

Activists say the most troubling  issue is grand jury indictment fixing where cprosecutors are prosecuting Blacks after the original indictments are altered or fixed by the county clerk of clerk of courts and the office of the county prosecutor and the charges are upped and the original indictments are  concealed by all involved from prosecutors to county clerks, public defenders and other defense counsel,  and corrupt judges. But the FBI, say activists, can get to the bottom of the fixed indictments easily, as can Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who aspires to be governor one day.


Community activists want an extensive FBI probe and a public corruption investigation by Yost, as well as criminal charges against  McGinty and others so applicable. and they want the public corruption and racism to be addressed in Cleveland's still pending consent decree for police reforms. Suburban cities in the county need consent decrees too, they say, if only to protect them from dirty, stalker-type cops like Dale Orians and corrupt judges and prosecutors like McGinty and Judge O'Donnell, a married man who freely stalks Black women.


Community activists say Orians is angry because he did not get to gun down Blacks he is sent to attack with a team of corrupt White cops and he wants those who get away from them imprisoned with help of prosecutors and corrupt judges who deny them indigent counsel and speedy trials, and then tamper with records.to seek to cover up the documented malfeasance


Activists also want a random draw process for the assignment of indigent counsel and judges at all times, particularly since corrupt common pleas judges are often handpicked for cases that are frivolous and politically motivated so they can allegedly try to seal the deal and get illegal convictions and forced plea deals, sources say. And they handpick and pay indigent counsel to further corruption in  the cases, records show, a large number of whom work harder to get  their Black indigent clients convicted than prosecutors themselves.


The county public defender's office says that prosecutors and county clerks are changing or fixing grand jury indictments and upping the charges illegally, according to court filings and motions made by former chief public defender Mark Stanton and others in his office, Stanton a pro-cop public defender who covered up cop impropriety in cases involving those maliciously prosecuted like innocent Blacks. He has since retired or was forced out.


Among other disparities, common pleas judges like Judge Fuerst are also accused of refusing to jounalize trial dates to get around speedy trial violations and so the public, including the mainstream media and community activists, will not know that that they are  hearing a trial to undermine Black defendants for prosecutors.


Activists say they are fed up with the racism and corruption in the county's general division common pleas court and plan to protest in upcoming weeks at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland where the common pleas court is housed. The civil liberties of Black people are being severely trampled upon, they claim, and Whites are at the helm, mainly angry White men who dislike Black people, and women.


"We shall protest until justice prevails for the Black community and others subjected to malfeasance and racism as it is our constitutional right," one activist said. "And anybody victimized by the county public corruption and racism should contact us with viable information."


This is a continuing investigation of the troubled and racist legal system of Cuyahoga County, which includes the majority Black city of Cleveland and is 29 percent Black. The county is the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties and it has a high rate of prosecuting Blacks in comparison to others, some of them prosecuted maliciously and denied indigent counsel.

Last Updated on Saturday, 18 November 2023 23:57

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