Pictured are Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joan Synenberg, former Newburgh Hts mayor Trevor Elkins, and Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley (wearing white shirt)

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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM- CLEVELAND, Ohio-A Republican Cuyahoga County common pleas judge in Cleveland, Ohio ignored a plea agreement between prosecutors and former Newburgh Hts. mayor Trevor Elkins, a Democrat, and handed the former suburban mayor jail time anyway, an option the judge could exercise under Ohio law.

In rejecting the  plea agreement that included no jail time, five years probation, and a fine, the judge issued a minimal fine and sentenced Elkins to six months in jail, with 150 days of that suspended, coupled with one year of community control and  200 hours of community service. If he completes the 200 hours of community service, the judge  said she would consider early termination of his probation.

Some sources say the judge's actions were politically motivated and others say Elkins, who is White, got off easy in terms of how the traditional Black defendant is treated by the assistant county prosecutors under County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, a Democrat, and by the 34 largely White general division common judges of Cuyahoga County, which includes the majority Black city of Cleveland and is a Democratic stronghold.

Most criminal cases are resolved by plea bargains. In a plea bargain, a defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for concessions from prosecutors when it comes to sentencing. Courts also often encourage plea deals because they reduce backlogs, and judges typically abide by the plea deals. But not all of the time.

Though the practice is rare and even rarer when prosecutors strike plea deals with politicians,  judges can reject plea deals. And that is what happened on Tuesday when Judge Joan Synenberg, a former Cleveland Municipal Court judge who has served on the  general division common pleas bench in Cuyahoga County for 14 years, sentenced the former mayor  of Newburgh Hts to 30 days in jail, after he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors that stem from a state elections commission investigation regarding the misappropriation of campaign funds.

He was indicted by a county grand jury on felony charges, but ultimately pleaded guilty to a trio of misdemeanors, and he faced a fine and up to 180 days in jail after his plea.

At sentencing, Synenberg, a Republican with ties to Democrats who also helped her get elected initially to the common pleas bench, called Elkins' actions "unfathomable" and said he violated the public's trust.

The judge has a reputation of not always bowing down to prosecutors. She fought to free and exonerate a man who spent 20 years on death row after she learned police and prosecutors hid evidence that would have exonerated him.

In 2016, she became the first Cuyahoga County judge in three decades to reject a jury's death penalty recommendation when she sent a man who killed three people at a Warrensville Heights barbershop to prison for life instead. At the time the judge said the man's history of untreated mental problems and long time abuse when he was child merited her decision.

Elkins pleaded guilty in April to two counts of attempted election falsification and one count of attempted theft in office after a  state elections commission investigation found that he had used more than $134,000 of campaign funds for personal use between 2015 and 2019, money investigators say he spent at bars and restaurants, and for other ventures.

Elkins, 49, claimed the money was not from campaign donors and instead came from funds he deposited into his campaign account. He said he repaid the money and told investigators and the judge that he did not know that it is illegal to commingle personal and campaign funds.

The former mayor had complained prior to accepting a plea deal that he was allegedly being politically targeted for failing to go along with the staus quo within his own Democratic party and sources said that his backing of particular progressive Democratic candidates for office may have drawn the ire of some powerful Democrats.

The plea agreement that got him jail time anyway also calls for Elkins to pay a $750 fine and not to run for office in Cuyahoga County through 2028. He was also forced to resign from his $69,000 a year job as  mayor of the village of some 1,800 people.

His successor as mayor, former council president Gigi Traore, is a Black Democrat and the first Black to lead the tiny largely White village of working class people.

Activists said Tuesday that they are concerned when judges reject plea agreements for possible political reasons and that they question whether County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, a big wig with the county Democratic party, was aware that Elkins might likely be hauled off to jail despite a plea deal with prosecutors that provided for no jail time.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black 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

New Cuyahoga County Democratic Party Chairman David Brock and 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel M. Brown (D-OH), a Warrensville Heights Democrat and the former chair of the county Democratic party, its first woman and first Black party chair

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief

CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM- EUCLID, Ohio- Executive committee members of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party chose Cleveland west side organizer David Brock during a meeting on Saturday to lead the county Democratic party as the midterm elections near, an election for party chair that saw Blacks lose their grip on the powerful party once led by 11th Congressional District Congressman Shontel M. Brown

A former county councilwoman, Brown succeeded Marcia L Fudge in Congress, Fudge her political mentor and a 12-year congresswoman who vacated her congressional seat in March of 2021 to serve as secretary of housing and urban development with President Joe Biden's administration.

Brown, 46, announced in late January that she would step down in June to dedicate more time to congressional work, though her dual role as congresswoman and party chair caused a degree of friction among party insiders and drew the ire of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper.

Brown and Fudge are both Black, Brown making history when she was first elected county party chair in 2017, its first Black and first female party chair. When she won the post  some five years ago,  she succeeded attorney Stuart Garson, who had quit the unpaid job, Garson stepping in initially after Jimmy Dimora, the imprisoned former party chair and county commissioner who preceded Garson for the post, ran afoul of the FBI and federal prosecutors.

Brock is White and won for party chair Saturday over four other candidates, namely state Rep Kent Smith of Euclid, state Rep Juanita Brent of Cleveland, former Shaker Hts councilman Rob Zimmerman, and community activist Ernie Harris, the former president of the activist group Black on Black Crime and a retired Cleveland schools programs support employee.

Harris and Brent are Black, Brent the daughter of the late and former state representative Vermel Whalen.

Brock told his fellow Democrats after being voted in as party chair that “It’s about how hard you work, how hard you work together."

Sources say his strongest asset in winning the confidence of executive committee members to snag the leadership role to lead the county's Democrats is community organizing, and hopefully the ability to raise monies and get Democrats elected and reelected.

Smith was ahead during the first round of voting but after Brent, Zimmerman and Harris dropped out before a second vote could be taken and backed Brock, Smith ultimately lost with Brock winning 55 percent of the vote to his 45 percent.

A community activist-turned-state representative, Brent was later chosen at Saturday's meeting as party vice chair, replacing Kevin Kelley, who lost a nonpartisan election last year for mayor as the then city council president to newcomer Justin Bibb, the city's fourth Black mayor, and its second youngest mayor.

Interim county party chair Blaine Griffin, now president of Cleveland City Council and who stepped in temporarily for Brown, chaired Saturday's voting session, Griffin a Black east side councilman who leads Ward 6 and a former community relations board director under former Mayor Bibbs' predecessor.

A county of some 1.2 million people, Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland, and is the second largest of 88 counties statewide, behind Franklin County, which includes the capital city of Columbus.. A Democratic stronghold that is roughly 29 percent Black, former president Barack Obama won the county in 2008, and again in 2012.

The county Dems continue to recover from a long term public corruption and FBI probe that brought some 61 guilty pleas or convictions since 2008, mainly White businessmen associated with the county Democratic party, and including two former Democratic common pleas judges that served federal prison sentences.

Jimmy Dimora, a former county party chairperson serving a reduced 28-year federal prison sentence for racketeering and public corruption, and Dimora's sidekick and once a powerful county Democratic party operative, former county auditor Frank Russo, who took a plea deal for a 22-year prison sentence and died earlier this year following early release due to the COVID-19 scare, were the main targets of the sting that Democrats say was politically motivated. At the time Dimora was also chair of the county Democratic party.

A  delayed primary for Ohio lawmakers that followed a dispute between Republicans and Democrats over state legislative redistricting maps, will finally go forward on Aug. 2 and the November general election is sure to bring more attention to Ohio for that reason, and others.

Gov Mike DeWine, a GOP incumbent, faces Democrat and former Dayton mayor Nan Whaley for an all out showdown for governor in November, an election in which Ohio's U.S. Senate race is also being closely watched nationwide.

Also at issue, among statewide, congressional and other offices also on the ballot, is the fight to replace retiring Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, as well as elections for two other seats on the court that Republicans hold. Currently, Republicans hold all of the statewide offices, other than three seats on the Supreme Court that the Democrats occupy. Whether this will change via this election cycle remains to be seen.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S.  Rep. Shontel M. Brown (D-OH), a Warrensville Hts Democrat whose largely Black 11th congressional district includes Cleveland and several of its eastern suburbs of Cuyahoga County, last week joined Reps. Dave Joyce (R-OH), Mike Turner (R-OH) and Deborah Ross (D-NC) in introducing the Fighting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Act of 2022, a first responders' bill pending in Congress.

Read the full text of the bill here

“While serving on the frontlines protecting our communities, our police officers and first responders often face traumatic situations that can leave them with invisible wounds,” said Rep. Brown.

The congresswoman said that a growing number of first responders in the U.S., from police and firefighters to emergency medical technicians, paramedics and other public safety personnel, suffer from PTSD, which can take a toll on their well-being .

The federal lawmaker said that the bipartisan congressional legislation merits congressional approval and that it “would bring us one step closer to ensuring our public safety officers can access mental health resources for PTSD.”

If it is ultimately approved by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the Fighting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Act would require that the U.S. attorney general establish at least one evidence-based treatment and preventive care program within the Department of Justice to help public safety officers with job-related PTSD.  And the justice department would also be required to consult with relevant stakeholders in crafting the initiative, including federal, state, tribal, territorial and local agencies that employ public safety officers, as well as some non-governmental organizations and law enforcement advocacy groups..

“This bipartisan legislation lays the groundwork for much-needed action aimed at offering increased support to law enforcement officers and first responders struggling with PTSD,” Rep Brown added.

Regarding the three other memebrs of Congress who signed onto the bill with Brown, Reps Joyce and Turner are Republicans and Congresswoman Ross is a Democrat like Brown, Brown also one of two Blacks in Congress from Ohio, alongside Rep Joyce Beatty, a Columbus Democrat who is also president of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Introduced during PTSD [Post Traumatic Stress Disorder] Awareness month, the legislative measure would also provide for mental health programs for first responders diagnoxed with PTSD..

U. S.Sen Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has introduced companion legislation in the Senate, an indication that Congress is in step with the legislation across partisan lines as gun violence increases nationwide and excessive force cases that are predominant to urban Black communities continue to make headline news.

PTSD is defined in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance as a mental health condition that can develop following ‘a stressful event or situation of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature, which is likely to cause pervasive distress in almost anyone’

Research by the NICE shows that police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and 911 dispatchers routinely encounter high-stress situations, making them more likely to suffer from PTSD and less likely to receive help for their illness than the average American.

“Police officers and other public safety personnel are the first line of defense in our communities when disaster strikes,” said Congressman Joyce, also a fomer prosecutor from Geaga County, Ohio. “Unfortunately, the danger and stress they face on the job doesn’t just disappear when they’re off the clock

A former Dayton Ohio mayor, Congressman Turner said that Congress has a duty to protect the health and welfare of the nation's first responders.

“Each day our first responders face immense stress and heavy responsibilities as they keep our communities safe. When they need our help, it is our duty to respond." he said. "The Fighting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Act will provide our first responders with the mental health support they rightly deserve when they need it. As mayor and now in Congress, I have worked alongside our first responders to make sure they have the professional and personal resources needed to safely do their jobs. This bipartisan legislation continues that effort.”

Congressman Ross agreed.

“Our first responders and law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to protect our communities and this service can take a tremendous toll,” said Rep Ross, who represents North Carolina's second congressional district.

Ross went on to say that "this bipartisan bill will ensure that public servants who are delivering life-saving aid have access to the resources and care they need to stay healthy and continue protecting communities in North Carolina and across the country.”

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black 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.

WASHINGTON, D.C.-In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. organized low-income Americans of different backgrounds in a march on Washington known as the "Poor People's Campaign."

Over 50 years later, thousands of protesters gathered Saturday to deliver that same message at the Poor People's and Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls.

The rally urged low-income voters to participate in the upcoming midterm elections and featured religious organizations, pro-democracy groups, labor unions and climate activists from across the country.

"As long as there are 140 million poor and low-income people in this country, and we know it doesn't have to be this way, we won't be silent anymore," said the Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT NPR.COM

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black 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.