Judge Kathleen Ann Keough Denied Party's Endorsement For The Appellate Court Following Her Harassment Of Black Journalist Seeking NAACP's Help
Cleveland NAACP President And Call and Post General Counsel George Forbes
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough
Journalist and Editor Kathy Wray Coleman
Posted Sunday, January 24, 2010
(National and Cleveland,Ohio Area News)
From the Metro Desk of The Determiner Weekly.Com and
The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network.
The Executive Committee of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party at its meeting on Saturday did not endorse Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough for the seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals up for grabs because of the end-of-the-year retirement of esteemed Judge Christine McMonagle.
McMonagle is said to be retiring along with her husband, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McMonagle, to take advantage of the other good things in life.
Keough's candidacy has been targeted by the Imperial Women and members of other grassroots factions for her alleged harassment of the group's co-founding member, Kathy Wray Coleman. Coleman's paid lawyer since the illegal verdict, Wayne Kerek, says his client was railroaded with an illegal resisting arrest jury verdict even though sole White male arresting peace officer Gerald Pace did not testify or even accuse her of it, meaning that Coleman was denied her constitutional right to confront her non-existent accuser in addition to other illegalities, many of which were allegedly perpetuated with Keough's help and direction.
“We are pleased that the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party has rejected Judge Keough as unworthy of a seat on the distinguished Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals possibly because of her unfairness and alleged harassment of Blacks, women, activists and journalists,” said Coleman, a former biology teacher and journalist of 15 years. “We also believe that this judge should not be re-elected to the Cleveland Municipal Court bench next year in the predominantly Black City of Cleveland and would urge people to begin now in campaigning in a legal manner to get this woman off of the bench for good.”
In rejecting Keough's candidacy, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party simply issued a “no endorsement” for the seat, which is also being sought by Republicans Brian Moriarity and Elizabeth Harvey, and Democrats John F. Corrigan, Michael T. Fischer, and Lori Anne Dyke, currently a staff attorney for out-on-sick-leave Cuyahoga Judge Nancy McDonnell. Dyke is also a daughter of retiring Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Ann Dyke, a judge in that court, like McMonagle, that the Black community and others can count on to issue fair rulings in many instances.
Coleman maintains that Keough is harassing her because she is a Black journalist and community activist writing on race issues, judicial impropriety, political corruption and other matters, including some 38 articles published in Cleveland's Call and Post Newspaper in 2008, the year the malicious prosecution was initiated. Though the Call and Post published articles on Keough's alleged harassment of Coleman, the journalist says the judge appears obsessed with her and was allowed to stay on the case via corruption by higher judicial officials that some say have no respect for Black people and the justice process.
"My sources say she was promised the endorsement not necessarily by the county Democratic Party, but by certain elected officials that want to keep the process of harassing Blacks with illegal criminal proceedings by the City of Cleveland intact," said Coleman.
Coleman, who took the stand at trial and denied resisting arrest while exposing alleged judicial and other corruption for the record, said the two day trial last May that brought the illegal resisting arrest verdict raises serious concerns about the malicious prosecutions of Blacks by a major metropolitan city led by a Black mayor.
"The malfeasance was stunning where Judge Keough actually got up in the middle of trial at one point to take over for the prosecution that she apparently viewed as inept, seeking a conviction," said Coleman. "She then allowed the prosecution to bring in somebody to testify for Pace regarding the charge of allegedly resisting his arrest and directed the jury to deliberate with the hearsay testimony as evidence, which violates the Ohio Rules of Evidence where the arresting officer must appear to testify. And, before encouraging and illegally allowing a juror to ask unwritten questions in the middle of trial that prosecutors ineptly failed to ask of their own witnesses, Keough allowed the prosecution to commit prosecutorial misconduct by lying in telling the jury that allegedly running before an arrest, which Coleman says she did not do, is resisting arrest, when it is instead failure to comply with a peace officer's order."
Following the arrest of August 7, 2008 that occurred as she was leaving a civil hearing at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center Justice Center Coleman says she was dragged to the county jail, threatened over Call and Post articles and other activity, given a knockout drug, and then told to strip naked for placement in a jail cell supervised by a disgruntled male jail handler. Four days thereafter, Coleman explained, she was released without charges via a prominent female attorney sent by Call and Post officials. Two months later Cleveland officials brought criminal charges as to the arrest itself and, according to Coleman, Keough was solicited as the judge to seal the deal.
"She began harassing me at the first pre-trial where we met with then attorney Scott Ramsey, and after cooperating with Judge Keough in trying to waive my right to a speedy trial and participating in an exparte meeting with the judge, where he took emails exchanged between us for her to review, he withdrew at my request from the case, having written merely a two page document for discovery proceedings," said Coleman "And, he stole the monies paid to him by me for representation. I would urge Blacks and others to never hire Ramsey for even the simplest legal matter."
Keough, said Coleman, removed then paid lawyer, Carole A. Lohr, from the case following impropriety at trial but continues to ignore her new attorney's request for a fair hearing to seek dismissal of the verdict.
Coleman says the harassment from Keough and others borders on criminal behavior and has gotten so bad that she has asked Cleveland NAACP President and Call and Post General Counsel George Forbes to step in.
"She has had me harassed at home by telephone and otherwise and her bailiff continually contacts my attorney, who brings back threats, the last seeking to stop us from attending the endorsement meeting of Saturday," said Coleman. "Mr. Forbes has been fully apprised of the harassment from the beginning and I have asked him to please intervene in the interest of justice for me because the stress is wearing, and for the betterment of the Black community."
The primary election is May 4 where the top Republican and top Democratic vote-getter will move on to the November general election.
Coleman says she was approached by Judge Keough as she and others distributed fliers at Saturday's meeting of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party where the veteran municipal court judge was denied the endorsement from her colleagues, even though she is the only judge in the race for that seat.
“She literally came storming out of the building screaming and trying to talk to me as we distributed data applicable under the free speech clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said Coleman, who allegedly photographed and recorded the entire incident on a cell phone in case a reanactment of it is needed in the event that the judge seeks to enlist somebody to lie about what happen. “I turned and walked away without comment and in front of supporters of Lori Anne Dyke and other witnesses to avoid ex parte conversations while the case that brought the illegal resisting arrest verdict is still before her. This was also to send the message that we are not seeking conflict but merely judges on the bench that are obligated to the fair and legal application of the law and to legal and equitable treatment of all community members regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, and free speech matters on issues of public concern pertinent to the Black community and others.”
Coleman has yet to be sentenced relative to the illegal resisting arrest verdict and she says she will now file a complaint with the bar association against Keough. She says she hopes that Keough will voluntarily recuse herself from the case in compliance with the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct and the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility, though she noted that she questions whether the judge is capable of internalizing her ongoing wrongdoing. Keough, says Coleman, violated state law when she issued rulings impacting her substantial rights while an affidavit of prejudice was pending against her, action ripe for review by bar association officials, Coleman added.
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough
Journalist and Editor Kathy Wray Coleman
Posted Sunday, January 24, 2010
(National and Cleveland,Ohio Area News)
From the Metro Desk of The Determiner Weekly.Com and
The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network.
The Executive Committee of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party at its meeting on Saturday did not endorse Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough for the seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals up for grabs because of the end-of-the-year retirement of esteemed Judge Christine McMonagle.
McMonagle is said to be retiring along with her husband, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McMonagle, to take advantage of the other good things in life.
Keough's candidacy has been targeted by the Imperial Women and members of other grassroots factions for her alleged harassment of the group's co-founding member, Kathy Wray Coleman. Coleman's paid lawyer since the illegal verdict, Wayne Kerek, says his client was railroaded with an illegal resisting arrest jury verdict even though sole White male arresting peace officer Gerald Pace did not testify or even accuse her of it, meaning that Coleman was denied her constitutional right to confront her non-existent accuser in addition to other illegalities, many of which were allegedly perpetuated with Keough's help and direction.
“We are pleased that the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party has rejected Judge Keough as unworthy of a seat on the distinguished Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals possibly because of her unfairness and alleged harassment of Blacks, women, activists and journalists,” said Coleman, a former biology teacher and journalist of 15 years. “We also believe that this judge should not be re-elected to the Cleveland Municipal Court bench next year in the predominantly Black City of Cleveland and would urge people to begin now in campaigning in a legal manner to get this woman off of the bench for good.”
In rejecting Keough's candidacy, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party simply issued a “no endorsement” for the seat, which is also being sought by Republicans Brian Moriarity and Elizabeth Harvey, and Democrats John F. Corrigan, Michael T. Fischer, and Lori Anne Dyke, currently a staff attorney for out-on-sick-leave Cuyahoga Judge Nancy McDonnell. Dyke is also a daughter of retiring Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals Judge Ann Dyke, a judge in that court, like McMonagle, that the Black community and others can count on to issue fair rulings in many instances.
Coleman maintains that Keough is harassing her because she is a Black journalist and community activist writing on race issues, judicial impropriety, political corruption and other matters, including some 38 articles published in Cleveland's Call and Post Newspaper in 2008, the year the malicious prosecution was initiated. Though the Call and Post published articles on Keough's alleged harassment of Coleman, the journalist says the judge appears obsessed with her and was allowed to stay on the case via corruption by higher judicial officials that some say have no respect for Black people and the justice process.
"My sources say she was promised the endorsement not necessarily by the county Democratic Party, but by certain elected officials that want to keep the process of harassing Blacks with illegal criminal proceedings by the City of Cleveland intact," said Coleman.
Coleman, who took the stand at trial and denied resisting arrest while exposing alleged judicial and other corruption for the record, said the two day trial last May that brought the illegal resisting arrest verdict raises serious concerns about the malicious prosecutions of Blacks by a major metropolitan city led by a Black mayor.
"The malfeasance was stunning where Judge Keough actually got up in the middle of trial at one point to take over for the prosecution that she apparently viewed as inept, seeking a conviction," said Coleman. "She then allowed the prosecution to bring in somebody to testify for Pace regarding the charge of allegedly resisting his arrest and directed the jury to deliberate with the hearsay testimony as evidence, which violates the Ohio Rules of Evidence where the arresting officer must appear to testify. And, before encouraging and illegally allowing a juror to ask unwritten questions in the middle of trial that prosecutors ineptly failed to ask of their own witnesses, Keough allowed the prosecution to commit prosecutorial misconduct by lying in telling the jury that allegedly running before an arrest, which Coleman says she did not do, is resisting arrest, when it is instead failure to comply with a peace officer's order."
Following the arrest of August 7, 2008 that occurred as she was leaving a civil hearing at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center Justice Center Coleman says she was dragged to the county jail, threatened over Call and Post articles and other activity, given a knockout drug, and then told to strip naked for placement in a jail cell supervised by a disgruntled male jail handler. Four days thereafter, Coleman explained, she was released without charges via a prominent female attorney sent by Call and Post officials. Two months later Cleveland officials brought criminal charges as to the arrest itself and, according to Coleman, Keough was solicited as the judge to seal the deal.
"She began harassing me at the first pre-trial where we met with then attorney Scott Ramsey, and after cooperating with Judge Keough in trying to waive my right to a speedy trial and participating in an exparte meeting with the judge, where he took emails exchanged between us for her to review, he withdrew at my request from the case, having written merely a two page document for discovery proceedings," said Coleman "And, he stole the monies paid to him by me for representation. I would urge Blacks and others to never hire Ramsey for even the simplest legal matter."
Keough, said Coleman, removed then paid lawyer, Carole A. Lohr, from the case following impropriety at trial but continues to ignore her new attorney's request for a fair hearing to seek dismissal of the verdict.
Coleman says the harassment from Keough and others borders on criminal behavior and has gotten so bad that she has asked Cleveland NAACP President and Call and Post General Counsel George Forbes to step in.
"She has had me harassed at home by telephone and otherwise and her bailiff continually contacts my attorney, who brings back threats, the last seeking to stop us from attending the endorsement meeting of Saturday," said Coleman. "Mr. Forbes has been fully apprised of the harassment from the beginning and I have asked him to please intervene in the interest of justice for me because the stress is wearing, and for the betterment of the Black community."
The primary election is May 4 where the top Republican and top Democratic vote-getter will move on to the November general election.
Coleman says she was approached by Judge Keough as she and others distributed fliers at Saturday's meeting of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party where the veteran municipal court judge was denied the endorsement from her colleagues, even though she is the only judge in the race for that seat.
“She literally came storming out of the building screaming and trying to talk to me as we distributed data applicable under the free speech clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said Coleman, who allegedly photographed and recorded the entire incident on a cell phone in case a reanactment of it is needed in the event that the judge seeks to enlist somebody to lie about what happen. “I turned and walked away without comment and in front of supporters of Lori Anne Dyke and other witnesses to avoid ex parte conversations while the case that brought the illegal resisting arrest verdict is still before her. This was also to send the message that we are not seeking conflict but merely judges on the bench that are obligated to the fair and legal application of the law and to legal and equitable treatment of all community members regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, and free speech matters on issues of public concern pertinent to the Black community and others.”
Coleman has yet to be sentenced relative to the illegal resisting arrest verdict and she says she will now file a complaint with the bar association against Keough. She says she hopes that Keough will voluntarily recuse herself from the case in compliance with the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct and the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility, though she noted that she questions whether the judge is capable of internalizing her ongoing wrongdoing. Keough, says Coleman, violated state law when she issued rulings impacting her substantial rights while an affidavit of prejudice was pending against her, action ripe for review by bar association officials, Coleman added.
