Black Journalist Vows To Appeal Dismissal Of Lawsuit Filed Againt Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough To The Ohio Supreme Court
Posted Tuesday, September 15, 2009
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
A Black journalist from the Cleveland, Oh. area says she shall appeal what she calls an illegal and retaliatory dismissal on Sept. 9th of a non-monetary lawsuit filed in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals against Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough.
The suit, filed on behalf of seasoned journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, also an outspoken community activist, seeks an order from the appellate court of Cuyahoga County to order Keough to vacate orders she issued in a case before her that involves Coleman that impacted Coleman's constitutional and statutory rights, allegedly in violation of Ohio state law. Cuyahoga County is the largest county in Ohio and is roughly 30 percent Black.
Of such orders issued by Keough one includes an order scheduling a hearing
on a motion for a new trial and a second order has the judge overriding that prior order. A motion for a new trial affects Coleman's constitutional and statutory rights and the appellate court, says Coleman, should have ordered Keough to vacate those orders and others.
Keough, who is White, issued the orders while she was under investigation for alleged bias following Coleman's filing of an affidavit of prejudice against her with the presiding judge of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, though Ohio Revised Code 2701.031 precludes a judge from
doing such, a statute in place partly to protect parties that file affidavits of prejudice against judges from retaliation.
Coleman also claims that two of the three judges on the panel, Judge Larry Jones, who is Black, and Judge Mary Eileen Kilbane, who is White, should not have participated in the case relative to a judicial panel that was arbitrarily contrived rather than by a neutral random draw process. Jones, who was elected to the appellate bench last year, was over Keough prior to his election as administrative judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court, and Kilbane, also a Cleveland Municipal Court judge previously, is allegedly a life long friend of Keough, an alleged relationship that spans from elementary school to their elections to the municipal court more than a decade ago, until now. They also worked together as Cuyahoga County public defenders prior to becoming judges.
Jones' issue is even more complicated since he served as the presiding judge over a criminal case where Coleman's then high school principal, Brian Wirtz, was convicted of assaulting her before her students when she was a biology teacher at Cleveland's John Marshall High School. Despite community protests before and after Wirtz' convictions for assault and unlawful restraint, Jones allegedly said publicly, and to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, that he hoped Wirtz would keep his job as principal regardless of the conviction, a statement that brought criticism from some Black community groups in Cleveland, including the Black Women's Political Action Committee. Interestingly, Wirtz' conviction came via the prosecutorial talent of Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, then the chief prosecutor for the City of Cleveland.
“Neither Judge Jones nor Judge Kilbane should have participated in my opinion relative to what we view as an arbitrary dismissal of the meritorious lawsuit,” said Coleman. “I believe that Judge Jones is harassing me because he is angry because Mr. Wirtz, who is White, was fired over his alleged objection as principal after assaulting me before a classroom of students, and Judge Kilbane is doing so because she is allegedly a life long friend of Judge Keough, though other reasons may be at play also.”
Coleman said she is puzzled as to how the three-judge panel would simply ignore the law and dismiss the lawsuit against Judge Keough. Prior to that she says her attorney, Wayne Kerek, told her that Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, who represents Keough relative to the lawsuit, had his subordinate call to beg him to dismiss the suit in exchange for nothing, a request he ignored and one, if it occurred, that Coleman views as a potential violation of the Ohio Lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility.
According to Coleman, the harassment is also allegedly in retaliation for articles she had written as a freelance journalist for the Call & Post Newspaper, a Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community, and her good faith efforts in seeking either modification or compliance with state law as to the assignment process for municipal court judges in Ohio. Such articles include a one-on-one interview with now U.S. President Barack Obama, another interview with Obama relative to his health care initiative, and writings on issues around alleged racism including the allegation of housing discrimination against Blacks in Shaker Heights, Oh.
“I believe that the alleged harassment is motivated by racial and political animus and an attempt to silence free speech on issues of public concern in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said Coleman. “The dissemination of necessary information via the media to the Black community is dangerous to those that want to perpetuate racism and malfeasance and who better than to assist in seeking to quash free speech to the detriment of the Black community than a Black man himself?
Coleman has 45 days from the appellate court's Sept. 9th dismissal of the lawsuit to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court which by law must hear the case because it originated in an Ohio state appellate court.
(National and Cleveland, Ohio Area News)
A Black journalist from the Cleveland, Oh. area says she shall appeal what she calls an illegal and retaliatory dismissal on Sept. 9th of a non-monetary lawsuit filed in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals against Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough.
The suit, filed on behalf of seasoned journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, also an outspoken community activist, seeks an order from the appellate court of Cuyahoga County to order Keough to vacate orders she issued in a case before her that involves Coleman that impacted Coleman's constitutional and statutory rights, allegedly in violation of Ohio state law. Cuyahoga County is the largest county in Ohio and is roughly 30 percent Black.
Of such orders issued by Keough one includes an order scheduling a hearing
on a motion for a new trial and a second order has the judge overriding that prior order. A motion for a new trial affects Coleman's constitutional and statutory rights and the appellate court, says Coleman, should have ordered Keough to vacate those orders and others.
Keough, who is White, issued the orders while she was under investigation for alleged bias following Coleman's filing of an affidavit of prejudice against her with the presiding judge of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, though Ohio Revised Code 2701.031 precludes a judge from
doing such, a statute in place partly to protect parties that file affidavits of prejudice against judges from retaliation.
Coleman also claims that two of the three judges on the panel, Judge Larry Jones, who is Black, and Judge Mary Eileen Kilbane, who is White, should not have participated in the case relative to a judicial panel that was arbitrarily contrived rather than by a neutral random draw process. Jones, who was elected to the appellate bench last year, was over Keough prior to his election as administrative judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court, and Kilbane, also a Cleveland Municipal Court judge previously, is allegedly a life long friend of Keough, an alleged relationship that spans from elementary school to their elections to the municipal court more than a decade ago, until now. They also worked together as Cuyahoga County public defenders prior to becoming judges.
Jones' issue is even more complicated since he served as the presiding judge over a criminal case where Coleman's then high school principal, Brian Wirtz, was convicted of assaulting her before her students when she was a biology teacher at Cleveland's John Marshall High School. Despite community protests before and after Wirtz' convictions for assault and unlawful restraint, Jones allegedly said publicly, and to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, that he hoped Wirtz would keep his job as principal regardless of the conviction, a statement that brought criticism from some Black community groups in Cleveland, including the Black Women's Political Action Committee. Interestingly, Wirtz' conviction came via the prosecutorial talent of Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon, then the chief prosecutor for the City of Cleveland.
“Neither Judge Jones nor Judge Kilbane should have participated in my opinion relative to what we view as an arbitrary dismissal of the meritorious lawsuit,” said Coleman. “I believe that Judge Jones is harassing me because he is angry because Mr. Wirtz, who is White, was fired over his alleged objection as principal after assaulting me before a classroom of students, and Judge Kilbane is doing so because she is allegedly a life long friend of Judge Keough, though other reasons may be at play also.”
Coleman said she is puzzled as to how the three-judge panel would simply ignore the law and dismiss the lawsuit against Judge Keough. Prior to that she says her attorney, Wayne Kerek, told her that Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, who represents Keough relative to the lawsuit, had his subordinate call to beg him to dismiss the suit in exchange for nothing, a request he ignored and one, if it occurred, that Coleman views as a potential violation of the Ohio Lawyer's Code of Professional Responsibility.
According to Coleman, the harassment is also allegedly in retaliation for articles she had written as a freelance journalist for the Call & Post Newspaper, a Cleveland weekly that targets the Black community, and her good faith efforts in seeking either modification or compliance with state law as to the assignment process for municipal court judges in Ohio. Such articles include a one-on-one interview with now U.S. President Barack Obama, another interview with Obama relative to his health care initiative, and writings on issues around alleged racism including the allegation of housing discrimination against Blacks in Shaker Heights, Oh.
“I believe that the alleged harassment is motivated by racial and political animus and an attempt to silence free speech on issues of public concern in violation of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said Coleman. “The dissemination of necessary information via the media to the Black community is dangerous to those that want to perpetuate racism and malfeasance and who better than to assist in seeking to quash free speech to the detriment of the Black community than a Black man himself?
Coleman has 45 days from the appellate court's Sept. 9th dismissal of the lawsuit to appeal to the Ohio Supreme Court which by law must hear the case because it originated in an Ohio state appellate court.
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