Imperial Women, Grassroots To Meet With Cleveland NAACP Around Imperial Ave. Murders, Black Issues, Activist Says Judge McGinty Is Harassing Her

Attorney and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes

From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)


Officers and executive committee members of the Cleveland branch NAACP have agreed to meet with members of the Imperial Women and leaders of a host of other grassroots factions for a discussion around the Imperial Avenue Murders and other matters impacting greater Cleveland's Black and other communities. Among members of the Imperial Women that will attend are family members of 11 Black women whose remains were uncovered a year ago on Imperial Avenue In Cleveland's impoverished Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.

Contacts from the grassroots venues are Kathy Wray Coleman at 216-932-3114, Don Bryant at 440-623-0492, Judy Martin at 216-990-0679, Tina Bronaugh at 216-253-6484, Marva Patterson at 216-334-7013 and Ada Averyhart at 216-645-0804.

"We are excited about meeting and we have confirmation from practically all of the affiliated grassroots leaders to attend as well as open arms from NAACP leaders, we believe," said Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women. "Mr Miller has advised that he shall contact us again to confirm the exact date of the Cleveland NAACP's regular meeting in January and that he is expecting us."

Other organizations joining the Imperial Women to meet with Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, executive director the Rev. Stanley Miller, branch lawyers James Hardiman and Lawrence Floyd and others active with the Civil Rights organization include Survivors and Victims of Tragedy, the Carl Stokes Brigade and the People's Forum.

The Oppressed People's Nation, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, and People for the Imperial Act are among others also slated for the community session, Coleman said.

Coleman went on to say that they hope to push the NAACP to become more community oriented and to raise the consciousness of its leaders on the overwhelming community issues before them, particularly relative to Black women and the unfairness of the legal system as it relates to young Black men, women and others. And, says the journalist, they want action rather than simply studies by establishment type researchers that serve primarily to remind us of the disparities against minorities in our courts since the findings, which may or may not have research validity, are merely gathering dust.

"We value the concept of the NAACP and support its existence, as well as what it brings to the community forum, and the interest in attending the meeting speaks for itself," said Coleman. "We appreciate the recent workshop by Bill of Rights Defense Committee Field Organizer George Friday as we recall the community empowerment that comes with effective community organizing and seek support from the NAACP, a community organization that belongs to the community."

Coleman said that during two coalition meetings held in the past six weeks the leaders of the participating grassroots factions decided that group members will, with permission from NAACP leaders, raise in part the following concerns to the NAACP executive committee and organizational officers at the January meeting:

-The dismissal of all criminal charges before Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough against Destini Bronaugh, 19, the Collinwood High School graduate subject to malicious prosecution by Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi and the City of Cleveland in retaliation for a peaceful student protest at the school in May around school closings and teacher layoffs. (Note: We also seek an investigation of police conduct around this issue and a report to the community).

-The immediate dismissal of all criminal charges against Rebecca Whitby, 25, and her mother, also named Rebecca Whitby, that came after an internal police complaint that the younger Whitby was called a "nigger" and beat up by Cleveland Fifth District Police without just cause, an elderly White neighbor says. (Note: We also seek an investigation of police conduct around this issue and a report to the community as to whether Rebecca Whitby was called "nigger" by police who have yet to be punished by the non-minority City of Cleveland safety director and chief of police).

-The dismissal of the erroneous guilty verdict of resisting arrest leveled against journalist Kathy Wray Coleman via prosecutorial misconduct and arbitrary behavior by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough in retaliation for her community emails and articles in the Call and Post Newspaper and elsewhere, and her community activism. (Note: The illegal harassment by Keough and her Illegal attempts to sentence Coleman for allegedly resisting arrest when illegally arrested In 2008 come without even a complaint or testimony as required under the Sixth Amendment from sole White male arresting sheriff's deputy Gerald Pace. Coleman says that she has been repeatedly harassed and has been threatened and arrested since 2008 with the help of certain Black leaders that took money and prestige over fair play and compliance with state and federal law around the malicious prosecution undertaken at the hands of Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, Keough's friend and attorney of record, as well as a former Cleveland Municipal Court judge).

-The request that assignments of criminal and all other cases to Cleveland Municipal Court judges be by random draw rather than personal selection of cases to judges like Judge Keough as required by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

-The assignment of a licensed mental health professional instead of Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough over the Cleveland Municipal Court Psychiatric Clinic per state law and an investigation of the number of people erroneously referred to the clinic for political and harassment purposes.

- The reorganizing of the City of Cleveland's top level law enforcement leadership team to reflect necessary diversity in the predominantly Black major metropolitan city where there are no Blacks or women as law director, safety director, chief of police, EMS commissioner, or chief prosecutor.

- An investigation as to the reassignment process of municipal and common pleas judges replaced in cases of bias or conflict of the sitting judge with a push for statutory legislation that requires assignments by computer generated random draw at all times.

-An immediate investigation as to the release from custody in 2008 of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell in spite of a credible and since prosecuted complaint by Gladys Wade, who said she was subjected to an attempted rape but got away. Six of the 11 murdered women of Imperial Avenue were murdered after Sowell's release from custody in 2008. (Note: Sowell is now in custody and awaiting trial on numerous counts of murder, kidnapping and rape, among other charges).

-The necessity for a fair trial relative to the Joaquin Hicks case and other cases impacting young Black men, women and others prosecuted by the State of Ohio in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas and sentenced to prison in violation of their constitutional and statutory right to a fair trial before a fair and neutral trier of law, i. e., the judge.

-An investigation as to whether innocent Black male prisoners have been illegally sentenced to life in prison relative to the 1993 Lucasville Riots.

Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge Votes Against Tax Compromise, Says It Passed At The Expense Of The Nation's Seniors

Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11)

From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-11), who represents parts of the City of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs, issued the following press statement as to her vote against the tax compromise that passed the House of Representatives and had previously passed the Senate at the urging of President Barack Obama:

WASHINGTON, DC-- Congresswoman Fudge voted against H.R. 4853, which costs over $800 billion, reduces funding for social security, and extends tax cuts for the wealthy. The measure, which the House passed by a vote of 277 to 148 late Thursday night, was passed by the Senate on Wednesday and now goes to President Obama for his signature into law. Congresswoman Fudge released the following statement after passage.

The compromise does not reduce the national debt. It piles nearly $1 trillion onto the deficit and it does so at the expense of our seniors and the millions of other Americans who rely on social security.

At this moment, social security funds itself through payroll taxes. The compromise reduces its funding by cutting the payroll tax and then replaces that loss with money from the general fund. However, it gives Americans absolutely no guarantee that that loss in funding will be replaced by money from the general fund. If we lower the payroll tax, will Americans let us raise it again? I don't think so. We're handing Republicans the ammunition they needed to defund social security and I will not participate. I refuse to chip away at social security.

Last week, the Ohio Alliance for Retired Persons presented me with over twenty-five thousand signatures of people asking me to protect social security. I promised to protect the one program that has reduced poverty among our elderly and disabled for generations. I am not about to back down now for tax cuts that only benefit a small percentage of Americans.

Over the past two years, I've voted for each and every extension of unemployment benefits because I believed it was the right thing to do. These are tough times and Ohioans are hurting. I see it every day when I'm at home. It's disappointing and cruel that Congressional Republicans are holding jobless benefits hostage to provide comfort to the comfortable.

Economists across the board say cutting taxes for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans does not create as many jobs as extending unemployment benefits. In fact, the Center for American Progress estimates that to create one job, it takes four times the federal dollars in tax cuts compared to extending unemployment benefits. Clearly, trickle down economics have not, and will not work.

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-OH)

Gaul's Hearing On Motion For Joaquin Hicks For A New Trial In Robbery Of Cleveland Clinic Employees That Led To Murder Is Questioned Due To Appeal

Joaquin Hicks
Jeremy Pechanec
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul








Article by Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Daniel Gaul, on probation for six months for unethical charges sanctioned by the Ohio Supreme Court in Oct. of this year, has set a hearing for Monday to decide if Joaquin Hicks, now serving 61 years to life in prison as the alleged ring leader that planned a robbery that led to the murder and attempted murder of two Cleveland Clinic employees in a plaza across from a Cleveland night club, should get a new trial.

At trial earlier this year Hick's attorneys said he was not even at Scorcher's nightclub on 12th St. and Chester Ave that night and family members took the stand and testified that he was at an aunt's house on Cleveland's East Side with relatives and sleeping with a girlfriend. The girlfriend also testified as to Hick's alibi.

In seeking the new trial his lawyers raised several trial errors including claims that Gaul allowed jurors to talk on their cell phones during deliberations, that a switchblade was placed under Hick's chair to prejudice jurors and that, according to Hick's family members, the judge might have even suggested to jurors that Hicks and his testifying family members and girlfriend lack credibility.

Hicks, 29, was found guilty by a jury on March 5 of planning the robbery that resulted in the shooting death of Jeremy Pechanec, 28, in the plaza across from the nightclub on Feb. 22, 2009. He was not found guilty of planning the shootings.

The jury also found him guilty of planning the robbery that caused the attempted murder for the shooting of Pechanec's Cleveland Clinic co-worker Jory Aebly, 26. Aebly survived a gunshot to the head. Both are White.

Trial testimony revealed that the two victims went outside of the bar and across the street to the plaza to buy marijuana and were allegedly robbed by the group of Black men, and eventually shot by Ralfael King, a teenager.

Unlike Hicks, the three men and the teen accused of crimes along with Hicks all took plea deals for their roles. They were also sentenced by Gaul, either before or after Hick's trial.

Shooter Ralfeal King, 17 at the time but prosecuted as an adult, was sentenced to 46 years to life for aggravated murder, attempted murder, aggravated robbery and kidnapping. And Perry King, 20, a lesser accomplice in the crime, was sentenced to 12 years in prison for driving the getaway car.

Cornelius King, 26, who pleaded guilty to murder for his actions in the crimes, was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. He took the stand against Hicks at trial saying Hicks organized the robbery that led to the murder and attempted murder, a claim Hicks denied under oath and said was leveled in exchange for plea deals that the others accused in the scenario were to receive.

Reginald Day, who also pleaded guilty to murder, got 21 years to life.

After the jury rendered the convictions against Hicks his attorneys filed motions for a new trial and dismissal of the case. Prosecutors did not respond and Gaul ignored the motions and sentenced Hicks, with Hicks appealing the convictions and the denial of his motions for a new trial and post verdict acquittal to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals.

While the case was on on appeal with a new set of lawyers hired by the Hicks family, Hicks' trial lawyer filed another motion for a new trial on September 22 of this year, one that the family has questioned as providing a forum for prosecutors to oppose it since they did not do so before the appeal.

Failure to raise issues at the trial level result in a waiver to raise such issues on appeal.

Though the family was allegedly told that Cornelius King has recanted via a letter saying police and prosecutors allegedly coerced him to lie on Hicks and that that is a basis for the hearing on Monday for a potential new trial, they say it is suspect and want to know if Gaul is merely holding a hearing on Monday under the guise of potentially giving Hicks a new trial for sinister reasons since he allegedly has no jurisdiction or authority because an appeal is pending. Hence, Gaul could merely deny a new trial and then send the record to the appellate court with an opposition motion by prosecutors for the new trial, circumventing the waiver that resulted when prosecutors did not oppose it at the trial level before the appeal.

"I do not trust this," said Larry Hicks," Hick's father. "How can Judge Gaul hold a hearing on a motion for a new trial when the case is on appeal and the appeal is still pending?"

Denise Taylor, Hick's Aunt, said that she was given a copy of the alleged letter of recantation.

"I have a copy of the letter," said Taylor. "Joaquin is going to be set free if what they are saying is true and the judges are fair."

The elder Hicks said the hearing for a new trial is also suspect since not one mainstream media outlet has mentioned it in such a high profile case.

John T. Paris, Hicks' trial lawyer, could not be reached for an explanation as to why, in spite of filing a motion for a new trial after the convictions and before sentencing that Gaul ignored, he would file another one while the case is on appeal and permit prosecutors to respond at the trial level.

Also at issue is whether the allegation that one of Hick's alleged accomplice is now recanting his prior testimony against Hicks also a trick, Larry Hicks said, though he added that he does believe that his son was lied on at trial and is innocent.

Though the case docket in the matter at the trial level says the case is closed, a docket entry from Gaul of Dec. 2 reads as follows:
DEFENDANT IS ORDERED RETURNED FROM THE INSTITUTION FOR HEARING ON MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL SCHEDULED FOR 12/13/2010 AT 9:00 A.M. SHERIFF ORDERED TO TRANSPORT DEFENDANT JOAQUIN HICKS, DOB: 05/24/1980, GENDER: MALE, RACE: BLACK. 12/01/2010 CPCLF 12/02/2010 08:21:50

Hicks is no angel, having served time for aggravated robbery in an unrelated case. If the motion for a new trial is denied and his convictions are upheld on appeal he is eligible for parole after 61 years.

Cleveland Call And Post Newspaper Attacks Judge Keough In Editorial Accusing Her Of Harassing Blacks And Exceeding Her Judicial Authority

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough
















Cleveland NAACP President and Call and Post Newspaper
General Counsel George Forbes

Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association President Steve Loomis











Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson
Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

The Call and Post Newspaper, the Black press that serves Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Oh., has attacked Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough in an editorial in this week's edition, which hit the stands Wed.

At issue is Keough's slap in the face to the newspaper and the client of Cleveland NAACP President and Call and Post General Counsel George Forbes where the controversial judge ordered Jason Ruiz, 27, to apologize to Cleveland police officer Anthony Sauto, who is White. She did so even though prosecutors objected.

The apology followed criminal charges lodged against Ruiz for a dispute at a bar last summer in Cleveland's Warehouse District. Following that dispute the Cleveland NAACP held a press conference to denounce what it called racism in the Warehouse District against Blacks.

Keough said at a hearing before the apology that Forbes, the Cleveland NAACP, and the Black leaders that backed Forbes on the issue were always using the race card without credibility "and the rest of the world is going by us."

Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association President Steve Loomis, who said the press conference was politically motivated due to renegotiations of the police union's collective bargaining agreement with city hall administrators and otherwise, backed Sauto. He had urged Keough, who was endorsed by the police union as to her win in November for a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, to order the apology on behalf of Sauto and police.

"If the prosecutor had wanted an apology from Ruiz, then that should have fallen on him, not the judge, and certainly not the police department," the scathing Call and Post editorial reads in part. "Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough exceeded her authority. To be sure, this newspaper will keep a close eye on Judge Keough as she continues to preside over cases in the Cleveland Municipal Court."
(Note: Read the entire editorial in this week's edition of the Call and Post).

Sauto was moonlighting as a bouncer at the bar and arrested Ruiz, who said he and other Blacks were put out at closing unlike their White counterparts. Both blame the other for the incident and Ruiz, the Cleveland NAACP and Cleveland City Councilmen Jeff Johnson and Zack Reed said Blacks are often the alleged victims of racial harassment by bar owners and police in the popular entertainment district.

A surveillance video of the incident has been spliced to manipulate the public where in Keough's courtroom impropriety is routine. It includes the falsification of case docket data to hurt appeals of illegal convictions, falsification of trial transcripts, undue influence on jurors, illegal jury instructions, and secret backroom meetings with the judge and prosecutors and defense counsel during trials where defense counsel in one case actually came out and delivered closing arguments against her own client and on behalf of the prosecution.

The ambitious judge is also accused of illegally securing high profile cases involving Blacks and community activists and then violating the law in an effort to have them maliciously prosecuted for Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, who usurps the role of Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez to bring the criminal charges against targeted Blacks and others on behalf of the predominantly Black City of Cleveland.

A former Cleveland Municipal Court judge himself, and Keough's lawyer when she is sued for harassing Blacks and women, Triozzi was appointed to his position by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, as was Perez and the saftey director, chief of police, and EMS commissioner, none of whom are Black.

Her criticism of Forbes, some say, was her way of distancing herself from Forbes, Jackson, the Call and Post and the Black community after using them to help her win the appellate seat that she won relative to last month's election. She won the May Democratic primary by less that 3200 votes against Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Ron Suster, whom the Call and Post endorsed for the primary election, though it endorsed Keough in the general election.

In conjunction with the apology Ruiz accepted six months probation without trial or judgment by a judge or what would have been a jury and if successful, the misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and criminal trespass will be dismissed.

Keough's six year term on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals commences Jan 3.

Gov. Strickland Names First Black Woman To Ohio Supreme Court In Choosing Former Running Mate Yvette McGee Brown

Newly Appointed Ohio Supreme Court
Justice Yvette McGee Brown

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Ohio Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland made history earlier this week in naming Yvette McGee Brown as the first African American woman to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Brown, 50, was the governor's Lt. Gov. running mate in this year's failed election to Gov-Elect John Kasich.

While some expected the governor to name Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray, who also lost along with the entire Democratic ticket for statewide offices, he selected McGee Brown of Columbus, Oh, a former Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge and founding president for the Center for Child and Family Advocacy at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

"I have no doubt that Yvette will provide a wise and compassionate voice for the most vulnerable to our highest court," Strickland said.

McGee Brown, married to a Columbus public school teacher with three children, becomes the third African American on Ohio's high court following Justice Lloyd Brown, who sat on the bench some four decades ago.

Replacing Republican Justice Maureen O'Connor, who whipped recently appointed Chief Justice Eric Brown in winning 68 percent of the vote in the November election to snatch the chief justice seat from him, McGee Brown takes office Jan. 1. She will be the only Democrat on the seven-member court.

"I am honored and look forward to bringing my diverse experiences and thoughtful perspectives to my work on the Ohio Supreme Court," said McGee Brown.

Her appointment was lauded by womens' groups in Ohio.

"We are pleased that Gov. Strickland understands the necessity for diversity at all levels of the continuum and has chosen Justice Yvette McGee Brown as the first Black woman to Ohio's high court," said Kathy Wray Coleman, a leader of the Imperial Woman. "And we will work to help her retain the seat when she runs for election."

Memorial For Henrietta King, Wife Of Boxing Promoter And Call & Post Publisher Don King, Is Sat. At 10 AM At Olivet Church In Cleveland

International Boxing Promoter and Call and Post Newspaper
Publisher Don King and his wife Henrietta King


















Renowned Boxing Promoter Don King


From the Metro Desk of the Determiner Weekly. Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog(www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Memorial services for Henrietta King, 87, wife of international boxing promoter and Call and Post Newspaper Publisher Don King, are as follows:

Services:
Saturday, December 11
10 a.m. - Family Hour and Viewing
11 a.m. – Funeral Service
Olivet Institutional Baptist Church
8712 Quincy Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio 44128

Arrangements by: E. F. Boyd & Son Funeral Home
25900 Emery Road
Warrensville Heights, Ohio 44128
(216) 831-7906

Henrietta King died late Thursday after complications from cancer and other ailments, a family spokesperson told reporters. King, 79, was with his wife of more than 50 years at a hospice center in South Florida that she was moved to on Tuesday when she passed. In addition to King, Henrietta King is survived by their three children, Eric 57, Carl 52, and Debbie, 47.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, a close friend to Don King, is expected to attend along with a host of other prominent national leaders, both Black and White alike.

Local personalities expected to pay their respects include Attorney and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, also general counsel for the Call and Post, and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

Five Families Of Imperial Avenue Murder Victims Sue City of Cleveland, Others Relative To Sowell Capital Murder Case

Serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell


By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) Changed from the stolen domain name of www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblogandmedianetwork.com that godaddy compromised in an attempt to silence free speech

Lawsuits filed Wednesday in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas by the families of five of the 11 victims whose remains were uncovered last year at the home of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell may bring to light the reason Sowell was released from custody in 2008 when an attempted rape complaint by Gladys Wade was deemed "not credible. She said that Sowell tried to rape her but she got away, and that Sowell was let go even though polioce said the walls of his home were lined with blood and it "smelled of death."

"Its been an entire year and our legal system is still the same, ignoring citizens complaints and their concerns," said Denise Hunter, a sister of slain Imperial Avenue victim Amelda Hunter and cousin to Crystal Dozier, whose murders represent a double tragedy for the Dozier-Hunter families. "It is time for a change and domestic violence and murder are on the rise."

The six Black women who were murdered after Sowell was released from custody in 2008 might be alive today if it were not for police neglect and malfeasance of city officials, the lawsuits say. Those women are Hunter, Janice Webb, Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Nancy Cobbs and Kim Yvette Smith, and of the families of those six, all but Smith filed suit on Wednesday via attorneys Terry Gilbert and Jeff Friedman.

Wade filed suit earlier this year and so did Florence Bray, Dozier's mother and an aunt to Hunter. They are both represented by attorney David Malik, who in June secured a $3.375 million settlement for a wrongful death suit for the family of R & B singer Sean Levert, allegedly killed via neglect by county jail personnel and doctors when he was jailed in 2008 on child support charges.

Sean Levert is the son of Eddie Levert, the lead singer of the famed 70's R & B group dubbed "The O'Jay's."

Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan, infamous as one of a handful of Cuyahoga judges that rarely dismisses bogus malicious prosecution cases under Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure against the predominantly Black defendants due to a lack of evidence, has Bray's case, and Cuyahoga Judge Brennan Sheenan, a former assistant county prosecutor under county prosecutor Bill Mason, has the case filed on Wade's behalf.

In addition to the families of the Imperial Eleven, parties to the seven lawsuits include Sowell, and the City of Cleveland, with claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and neglect, among others.

The 51-year-old Sowell is now in custody awaiting trial set for Feb 14. on numerous counts of aggravated, murder, rape, and kidnapping, which include the alleged rape of Wade, a charge filed after an indictment by the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury earlier this year following community outcry as to his release in 2008.

After the city announced what would ultimately be the remains of the 11 Black murdered women Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson allegedly had Black clergy and others lure in specific family members of the victims, including a son of Hunter, and gave them as little money as $900 for what the city thought was a release from suit before suit by any of the families was ever filed. The mayor is accused of then targeting grassroots leaders such as community activist Kathy Wray Coleman for illegal jailing via Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, whom he endorsed for her recent win as to a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that commences next year. This, say activists, was a desparate attempt to silence the Imperial Avenue Murders issue and to protect the city from liability.

"We are pleased that the City of Cleveland, city officials and police will now be called to task for apparent neglect and malfeasance around the unprecedented murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave in Cleveland, Oh., six of whom might be alive today if Sowell were not arbitrarily released from custody on an attempted rape complaint in 2008," said Coleman, a leader of the grassroots group the Imperial Women. "Now is as good of time as ever for Mayor Jackson and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes to demand an immediate investigation around Sowell's release in 2008. If Mr. Forbes can speak out for Black men that patronize bars at Cleveland's Warehouse District he can speak up for 11 murdered Black women."

Coleman said that the Imperial Women and other grassroots factions will also be seeking an apology from Jackson on behalf of the city as to the murders of the women and Sowell's release in 2008. She said that she and other members of the Imperial Women are talking with members of other grassroots factions to decide the date and time that they will hold either a press conference or rally seeking such.

"If Judge Kathleen Ann Keough can demand that Blacks apologize to police behind alleged impropriety, whether warranted or not, it is only fair that Mayor Jackson, on behalf of the city, apologize to the families of the Imperial Eleven, particularly those of the six that went missing after either his appointees or his police force released Sowell from custody in 2008 on a credible attempted rape complaint by Ms. Wade," said Coleman.

A former marine, Sowell had served 15 years in prison on an attempted rape conviction before he was released to allegedly kill 11 Black women in Cleveland's impoverished Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.

Jackson has no Blacks or women as law director, safety director, chief prosecutor, chief of police or EMS commissioner, though the City of Cleveland is roughly 57 percent Black and is majority female.

Wife Of International Boxing Promoter And Call And Post Publisher Don King Dies at 87, The Rev. Al. Sharpton To Attend Funeral Near Cleveland

International Boxing Promoter and Call and Post Newspaper Publisher Don King and his wife Henrietta

From the Metro Desk of the Determiner Weekly. Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog(www.determinerwwekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

The wife of internationally known boxing promoter Don King, also publisher of the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Oh., has died.

Henrietta King, 87, died late Thursday after complications from cancer and other ailments, a family spokesperson told reporters. King, 79, was with his wife of more than 50 years at a hospice center in South Florida that she was moved to on Tuesday when she passed.

In addition to King, Henrietta King is survived by their three children Eric 57, Carl 52, and Debbie, 47.

"Our condolences to the King family," said Kathy Wray Coleman, editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com.

Coleman, who did freelance writing for the Call and Post for 14 years before venturing out on her own, said she had the pleasure of meeting the gracious Henrietta King at Don King's 68th birthday party at their home Orwell, Oh. At that gathering, she says, were the movers and shakers, including the Rev. Al Sharpton of the National Action Network.

Funeral plans were pending. Although Don and Henrietta King resided in Florida for years, she is to be buried near Cleveland, their hometown, where King still owns a home.

Sharpton is expected to attend memorial services in Cleveland along with a host of other prominent national leaders, both Black and White alike.

Judge Keough's Order For Black Banker To Apologize To White Arresting Police Officer Has City Council And Police Fighting, NAACP, Blacks Angry

Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association President Steve Loomis











Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson



















Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough
















Attorney and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network

An order by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough for an educated Black banker to apologize to a White Cleveland police officer as part of a plea deal or face trial in a criminal case that the Cleveland NAACP said has racial undertones has the leaders of the Civil Rights organization angry and some Black members of Cleveland City Council fighting with the city's police union. And Keough went further saying the claims of racism by the NAACP and Black leaders were bogus and indicative of routine race card tactics in Cleveland.

"This city makes everything a racial incident," said Keough on Monday to the parties and their attorneys after intern banker Jason Ruiz apologized in open court with an array of media glaring at him. "And the rest of the world is going by us."

In spite of any good faith intent by the controversial Democratic judge, who is White, community activists and Black leaders said that the apology gesture smacked of subordination of the Black community as representatives from the Cleveland NAACP and the law office of Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, who represents Ruiz in the case, looked on in obvious anger.

And to make matters worse for Keough, Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson and Cleveland Police Patrolman's Association President Steve Loomis went toe to toe and nearly blow to blow outside of her courtroom yesterday.

"The judge was wrong not to include how he was arrested and police officers should not be hired as bouncers at bars," said Johnson, who introduced legislation at the regular council meeting later that evening to preclude police moonlighting at bars.

Loomis shot back saying that Johnson was "grandstanding and part of the problem."

Loomis said that Keough's order for an apology was "one-hundred percent right," and that Forbes, Johnson and others were putting the lives of police officers at risk via infighting.

Before the Johnson-Loomis dispute broke, Ruiz, 27, read an apology letter in open court to to Cleveland Police Officer Anthony Sauto, who arrested him last summer after Ruiz, an intern banker and recent graduate of the prestigious Morehouse College, said that he and his Black friends and colleagues were put out of a Warehouse District nightclub at closing unlike their White counterparts.

Sauto was moonlighting there as a bouncer, and Ruiz spent the weekend in jail, ultimately charged with misdemeanor crimes of resisting arrest and criminal trespass.

"I Jason Ruiz apologize for the events of Aug. 21, 2010 on West Sixth St., Cleveland, Oh., which resulted in my contact and a dispute with Cleveland Police Officer Anthony Sauto, sincerely Jason Ruiz," the Morehouse graduate said.

Afterwards, Sauto told reporters that the incident was being taken out of context by Forbes and other Black leaders that had allegedly hurt his reputation with allegations that he is anti-Black, a claim they deny.

The Ruiz plea deal had been closed by Keough and the parties last week without a requirement for an apology with Ruiz agreeing to six months probation and the charges dropped thereafter if successful. But days later Keough lured the banker and his attorneys to court for Monday after threatening an immediate trial that day without time for preparation unless he apologized to Sauto. And the judge was serious, having been endorsed by the police unions for her recent win for a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that commences next year.

Ruiz's case sparked community attention when Forbes, Cleveland NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller, Johnson, Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed, and a few other Black leaders attended a press conference called by the Cleveland NAACP. There, they backed Ruiz, and said that Black men that patronize bars in the predominantly White Warehouse District face discrimination routinely by bar owners and Cleveland police, a posture that upset Sauto and Loomis. A passionate police union president, Loomis and his negitiations team are fighting with city hall for a fair police union contract in the midst of contentious contract negotiations with the administration of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, a fight that has strained police morale, police say.

Judge Keough Sets Precedent For Black Banker To Apologize To Police In Reversing Plea Deal Of Warehouse District Prosecution Case NAACP Called Racist

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough
Cleveland NAACP President and Call and Post Newspaper General Counsel George Forbes

By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the Determiner Weekly.Com and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com

Bowing to pressure, Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough has reopened a closed plea deal and ordered a Black banker represented in the criminal proceedings before her by the law offices of Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes to apologize to the arresting police officer or face trial. (go to www.Cleveland.com. to read Plain Dealer Reporter Robert Smith's article on the matter and blog comments).

Jason Ruiz, 27, must appear before Keough today to apologize to a White Cleveland police officer that he and his friends said mistreated him after they, unlike their White counterparts, where kicked out of a West Sixth St. bar at closing.

Ruiz attorney Helen Forbes, a daughter of Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes, also general counsel for the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper, reportedly said that the racial issue had now been inflamed into a larger one by Keough and others.

A debonair intern banker, who is a recent graduate of Morehouse College, the nation's most prestigious all male and predominantly Black institution of higher learning, Ruiz was arrested Aug. 21 by the officer in question and spent the weekend in jail.

In conjunction with the case Forbes, NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller, Cleveland City Councilmen Jeff Johnson and Zack Reed, and a few other Black leaders, held a press conference and billed the incident, and others in the Warehouse District, as racist. That angered the police officer at issue and he demanded an apology from Ruiz as a condition of the plea deal, one that prosecutors took off the table as not usually, if ever, required, particularly given the fragile relationship between police and the Black community.


On Monday the parties, with Keough's approval, had settled misdemeanor charges of criminal trespass and resisting arrest that followed the dispute, a dispute that the Cleveland NAACP said was indicative of a racially hostile climate in the Warehouse District, particularly for young successful Black men . That plea deal, which had no requirement for an apology, called for six months successful probation and the dropping of the charges thereafter.

By law, prosecutors for the city , and not police or crime victims, agree to plea deals handed to judges for approval. But rarely does a judge , absent gross illegality, snatch it back days later, only to embarrass the NAACP, the nation's most respected Civil Rights organization, and to ingratiate herself with police.

Endorsed by the Cleveland Patrolman's Police Association and other law enforcement unions for her recent win for a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that commences next year, Keough did just that. And she is taking heat in response.

Keough, whose integrity as a judge has come under question by grassroots factions because she is arbitrarily taking criminal cases and targeting Blacks and women for malicious prosecutions, is criticized on the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper's online blog at Cleveland.Com in response to Smith's article this week around her switch that Ruiz must apologize to police.

"This is politically motivated by the judge and I hope he sticks to his beliefs," wrote one blogger on Cleveland.com in urging Ruiz to ditch an apology and take the case to trial. "To apologize I say HELL NO! This is some crap set up by the PD and the judge proves she isn't fit by falling for this crap," wrote another.

Other bloggers said that Keough's courtroom has been plagued with impropriety for years and that her demand for an apology is unconstitutional.

"A person may not be coerced to incriminate themselves as a condition for a plea bargain," and "you're assuming that the Constitution applies in Keough's court," bloggers said.

Whether Keough's back tracking on a closed plea deal will be challenged by Helen Forbes in the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals via the filing of a petition for a writ of prohibition remains clear since she told Keough and prosecutors last week that Ruiz would appear today to apologize.

A copy surveillance video of the incident is being requested from Cleveland Safety Director Robert Flask for review by the grassroots community and others.

Keough's slap in the face to Forbes came after he had endorsed her, as did Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, for her recent appellate court win, though the duo would not endorse any of the Black women seeking judgeship's and all three lost in the May Democratic Primary.

Editorial: Plain Dealer Columnist Regina Brett Picks On Black Male Leaders In Apology To White Officer She Blasted In Warehouse District Case

Pulitizer Nominated Plain Dealer Columnist Regina Brett
Cleveland Ward 2 Councilman Zack Reed



















Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson




















Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi




















Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough





Attorney and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes

From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (An Editorial by Editor and Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman)


Pulitzer nominated Plain Dealer Columnist Regina Brett, in her column dated Dec. 2 , apologizes to a White male Cleveland Police officer whom she chastised in a previous column following alleged claims by the Cleveland NAACP and a few Cleveland City councilmen that he is allegedly racist following an altercation with a group of educated Black men that were patronizing a bar in Cleveland's Warehouse District (Note: go to www.cleveland.com to read the column, and all deny that the officer, himself, was called racist).

Before I attempt a scholarly approach to this assessment I might say, with expected opposition, that Black people cannot be racist in America. Racism, by some standards, is the inequitable distribution of resources by the majority power structure and in America Blacks do not have the collective power to be racist, if individuals can be racist. Hence, we can only be potential bigots, to those that embrace such a sophisticated definition of racism.

At particular issue is whether Morehouse College graduate Jason Ruiz, 27, an intern at a local Cleveland area bank that did what young people do on the weekends by going for a night on the town in the Warehouse District , should apologize to the police officer after taking a plea deal of probation before judgment on Monday relative to misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and criminal trespass. The controversial case, by controversial design, was heard by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough.

The handsome and debonair Ruiz, who has no criminal record, was arrested Aug 21 outside a a West Sixth Street night club in the Warehouse District following an altercation with police, including the officer in question. He and a group of other Blacks said that they were allegedly targeted to leave because the bar was allegedly closing while their White counterparts were not. If Ruiz completes his six months of probation without incident the charges will be dropped.

Brett, who has not yet won a Pulitzer, said she did not do adequate research before blasting the White officer and simply believing Black people, namely Ruiz, his lawyer George Forbes, also president of the Cleveland NAACP, NAACP Executive Director Stanley Miller, and a group of other Black leaders, including Cleveland City Councilmen Zack Reed and Jeff Johnson.

In her apology to the officer Brett seems to do what she probably thinks is effective back research and back stepping with two things in mind____ to clear her name and to protect the PD from potential liability. To do so she has no choice but to dog the 79-year-old Forbes, who may or may nor deserve it, Miller, Ruiz, Reed, and Johnson, all Black men. But what she has not done is demand public release of the camera video of the alleged incident that Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask is hiding from the Black community and others, if one really exists.

What Brett will not do is take on Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, who presided in the case and who was illegally assigned to it via personal selection rather than by random draw. She is not going to ask Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi to explain how he can usurp the role of Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez to bring the charges for the city against Ruiz and other Blacks when he is a former Cleveland judge and colleague to Keough.

And Brett will not tell you that in a clear conflict of interest Triozzi is literally Keough's lawyer as late as last year in a petition for a writ of prohibition case before the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals. In that case a Black woman seeks support for a request that Judge Keough be forced to comply with the law when harassing Black and female defendants. Fortunately for Keough, her best friend since second grade (Judge Mary Eileen Kilbane), and former Cleveland Municipal Court Presiding and Administrative Judge Larry Jones, who is Black, ran interference for her, and in a biased manner.

Brett should not, after claiming shady investigative work, now pick only on our Black men and Black male leaders simply because she allegedly did not research the issue before blasting the police officer in a prior column, if you believe that she didn't do such research, and if you happen to believe that Ruiz is guilty as sin and the White officer at hand is as clean as a whistle.

As long as that video of the incident stays hidden Brett cannot effectively judge for us what actually happen. And even if it exists and were released for public consumption,impropriety can be expected since data show falsification of criminal trial transcripts manipulation of camera video data, defamation via lies of convictions, and falsification of documents to hurt appeals of illegal convictions in the Cleveland Municipal Court. And Brett has been told of some of this.

Regina Brett should stop picking only on Black men and Black male leaders on this issue while refusing to demand that the public have access to the video of the incident, though a public records request must get it. This is particularly true since Triozzi, Flask and Keough, all White, get a free pass from her criticism, in spite of their obvious involvement.

Remembering The Late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio's First Black Congresswoman

The late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland during Clinton's unsuccessful campaign for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008














From the Metro Desk of The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com remembers the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Ohio's first Black Congresswoman who died in August of 2008 shortly before Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America.

Below is the last major interview with Tubbs Jones by Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman that was featured in the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black Press.

"I remember calling the Congresswoman right after then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton lost the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America," said Coleman. "And at that time tensions were still underway because she was Clinton's national co-chairperson and several Blacks in the predominately Black 11th Congressional District that she represented were either uncomfortable or angry because she was supporting Clinton, including the Call and Post Newspaper."

Though taken right after Clinton lost the nomination Coleman says that the Call and Post would not print it saying that "Stephanie and Hillary need to settle down and support Obama." It was after her death on August 20, 2008 that Coleman says she reminded Call and Post officials that she had the last major interview.

Coleman says that Tubbs Jones' absence is felt, particularly by Black women political hopefuls who won seats, including judgeship's, because she would often buck the status quo and some sexist Black men and endorse them.

The one-on-one interview is reprinted as follows:


By Kathy Wray Coleman
(National and Cleveland, Oh. Area News)

Posted September 6, 2009
(Originally published on September 24, 2008 in the Call & Post Newspaper, Ohio's Black Press with distributions in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, where Kathy Wray Coleman interviewed the late Tubbs Jones in her capacity as a freelance journalist)

This is an exclusive interview with the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones held shortly before her untimely death where the beloved congresswoman of the 11th Congressional District spoke on various issues including her tenure as the national campaign chairperson for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton relative to Clinton's failed pursuit of the Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America. Such audio-taped interview, which occurred with Tubbs Jones' on record approval, was undertaken three days after Clinton gave her historic concession speech in New York City. There she urged her supporters and others to rally behind Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the first Black presidential nominee of a major American political party.

The one-on-one interview with Tubbs Jones highlights the complicated concepts of race and gender in American politics. As Clinton's national campaign chairperson, Tubbs Jones did not waiver in her support of Clinton, even after an overwhelming number of Blacks from across the country and in her own congressional district rallied behind Obama. Though Clinton won Ohio's Democratic primary by some 200,000 votes, 70 percent of Tubbs' Jones constituents in the majority Black 11th Congressional District voted for Obama where tensions ran high with no holds barred. Still, Tubbs Jones remained loyal saying that she came aboard for Clinton long before Obama revealed his intentions to seek the Democratic nomination for president and that her word was her bond.

In this in depth yet spontaneous interview Tubbs Jones talks about the congressional legislation and other activities she sought on behalf of the Black community. She also gives her perspective as to the ups and downs that ambitious women encounter when they seek to positively manipulate the status quo. She says that men are typically in and women must still struggle for acceptance at all levels of the continuum, in politics, in corporate America, and otherwise. The interview further reveals a loss to the Black community as Tubbs Jones speaks of the Blacks in public office in Cleveland and in Cuyahoga County that she helped to get elected.

CALL & POST FREELANCE REPORTER KATHY WRAY COLEMAN:
Can McCain beat Barack?

Tubbs Jones:
I think that Barack can beat McCain but we have a lot of work to do for him to beat John McCain.

Ohio is so very important isn't it?

Tubbs Jones:
I think Ohio is very important. No [Republican] president has won the presidency without winning Ohio.

C&P:
Would you be as responsive to Obama as you were to Hillary?

Tubbs Jones:
Absolutely. At this juncture Hillary says it and I'm saying the same thing, that that's history and we're moving forward and the only thing we can do now is get Sen. Obama elected.

C&P:
Can he win if you don't help him?

Tubbs Jones:
I'm willing to help, but I don't predispose that I am that important.

C&P:
Did Hillary hurt you in your district?

Tubbs Jones:
I believe that there were many people who did not like the fact that I supported Hillary, but I don't believe it hurt my ability to represent the district or my record of support for other candidates. And you know what is so amazing Kathy, where were all these people when I was trying to help Raymond Pierce get elected mayor of the City of Cleveland? And where were all these people when there were other African-American elected officials that have been running for public office and we couldn't find them to support us? The list goes on.

C&P:
So what you are saying is that you supported a whole lot of African-American candidates, right?

Tubbs Jones:
Of course.

C&P:
Name a few

Tubbs Jones:
[Cleveland Mayor] Frank Jackson, Ramond Pierce, all the municipal court judges in Cleveland, Peter Lawson Jones for county commissioner, and upcoming Lillian Greene to be the county recorder.

C&P:
I guess if you said put Hillary on the ticket that would be a another thing wouldn't it?

Tubbs Jones:
[laughter].. I think she'd be a great vice president but I don't know whether that's what she wants or whether that's what he [Obama] wants, and I'm not pressed.

C&P
Did you see any racism or sexism in this Democratic campaign?

Tubbs Jones:
Absolutely. I want to send you this article from the New York Times about sexism in the city and sexism in the campaign.

C&P:
Do you believe that this time sexism was more prevalent than racism?

Tubbs Jones:
Yes, absolutely.

C&P:
Men still like to run things, don't they?

Tubbs Jones:
Yes, absolutely. Men like to run things, and its alright. Men like to run things and women like to
run things, and that's a competition.

C&P:
Sexism can be stronger than racism in some arenas?

Tubbs Jones:
Absolutely. All you have to do is look at how many women there are in the Senate, how many women there are in the House compared to the number of men, how many women governor's there are, women elected officials, women in the board rooms, and CEOs in large companies. We have come a long way, but we've got a long way to go. I felt blessed to have had the opportunity to advise a presidential candidate in 2008 having come from a father who was a sky cap and a mother who was a factory worker. I will always remember the experience I had and I am thankful for it. Sen. Clinton has thrown her wholehearted support behind Barack Obama and I throw mine as well.

C&P:
What are some of the [bills] that you have sponsored or co-sponsored on behalf of the Black
community?

Tubbs Jones:
The fugitive safe surrender and the uterine fibroid tumor [bills], and The Second Chance Act. It [The Second Chance Act] passed [into legislation] in the last 60 days. The Second Chance Act focuses on giving ex-offenders the opportunity for jobs, on housing, drug treatment, family counseling and job training.

C&P:
Are Black women disproportionately affected by fibroids?

Tubbs Jones:
Absolutely, and no one knows the cause. They say that the highest incidence of hysterectomy is the result of uterine fibroids. I have been working on legislation around instate renal disease and kidney failure that predominates in African-Americans. So you know, people called in about she hasn't done anything for veterans and I created a veterans advisory committee, that I hadn't done anything for Black men, and the list went on. And as I said, I stand on my record for support for my community and my constituents.

C&P:
Is there anything else that you want me to get across to the Black community?

Tubbs Jones:
[Get across] how much I love and support them. And I say to them that you may not have liked my decision or you may not have supported my decision for Hillary Clinton, but look at my record and support of the community and the work that I have done in the past 26 years.

C&P:
Thank you.

Tubbs Jones:
You're welcome.

Tubbs Jones, 58 at her death, was the first Black congresswoman from Ohio. She died of a brain aneurysm Aug 20, just nine days before Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Her death took the state of Ohio and the nation by storm where thousands attended her memorial service in Cleveland including Sen. Obama, Michelle Obama, vice presidential Democratic Nominee Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, Congressional Black Caucus Chairperson Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, retired U.S. Rep. Louis Stokes, and many of her constituents from the 11th Congressional District, which encompasses the City of Cleveland and parts of its eastern suburbs