Black Journalist Sues Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough In The Ohio Supreme Court
Posted Saturday, September 26, 2009
(Cleveland , Ohio Area News)
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough was sued on Thursday in the Ohio Supreme Court by a Black journalist who has asked the court to stop the judge's alleged harassment of her.
Kathy Wray Coleman, a journalist of 15 years out of the Cleveland, Oh. area, claims in the suit that Keough is targeting her to get at “higher ups at the Call and Post,” a weekly newspaper that targets Cleveland's Black community and one that has published articles by Coleman as a freelance journalist since 1993. Such articles include allegations of housing discrimination against Blacks in Shaker Heights, Oh., a one-on-one interview with now U.S. President Barack Obama, and claims that county reform measures that strip voters of the right to directly elect county officials would disenfranchise the Black community.
The reform measure at issue, which Coleman has not written about specifically, is now on the November ballot and is dubbed Issue 6. If adopted by voters it would strip them of the right to elect Cuyahoga County offices such as the county commissioners, the clerk of courts, the sheriff and the auditor by putting in place an elected executive head and an elected 11 member county council to appoint officials to the offices. Of the 11 county offices aside from the judgeships only two are held by Blacks, though Cuyahoga County is roughly 30 percent Black.
According to the suit, Coleman's sources as a Black freelance journalist have advised Coleman that Keough has allegedly targeted her for harassment because she has allegedly “been promised endorsements when she runs again for a higher judgeship by those pushing a county measure that would change the election process for county offices on the November ballot that is opposed by the Black leadership in Cleveland and the Call and Post Newspaper.”
Filed on Coleman's behalf by her attorney, Wayne L. Kerek, the lawsuit also accuses the judge of retaliating against Coleman for articles that she has written that were published last year in the Call and Post, many of which address issues of public concern relative to Cleveland' Black community.
“Judge Keough is hellbent on destroying Coleman to get at the Black press indirectly,” the lawsuit reads.
Keough, 48, has 21 days to respond to the lawsuit, which also seeks an order from Ohio's high court to direct Keough to stop her alleged harassment of Coleman
(Cleveland , Ohio Area News)
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough was sued on Thursday in the Ohio Supreme Court by a Black journalist who has asked the court to stop the judge's alleged harassment of her.
Kathy Wray Coleman, a journalist of 15 years out of the Cleveland, Oh. area, claims in the suit that Keough is targeting her to get at “higher ups at the Call and Post,” a weekly newspaper that targets Cleveland's Black community and one that has published articles by Coleman as a freelance journalist since 1993. Such articles include allegations of housing discrimination against Blacks in Shaker Heights, Oh., a one-on-one interview with now U.S. President Barack Obama, and claims that county reform measures that strip voters of the right to directly elect county officials would disenfranchise the Black community.
The reform measure at issue, which Coleman has not written about specifically, is now on the November ballot and is dubbed Issue 6. If adopted by voters it would strip them of the right to elect Cuyahoga County offices such as the county commissioners, the clerk of courts, the sheriff and the auditor by putting in place an elected executive head and an elected 11 member county council to appoint officials to the offices. Of the 11 county offices aside from the judgeships only two are held by Blacks, though Cuyahoga County is roughly 30 percent Black.
According to the suit, Coleman's sources as a Black freelance journalist have advised Coleman that Keough has allegedly targeted her for harassment because she has allegedly “been promised endorsements when she runs again for a higher judgeship by those pushing a county measure that would change the election process for county offices on the November ballot that is opposed by the Black leadership in Cleveland and the Call and Post Newspaper.”
Filed on Coleman's behalf by her attorney, Wayne L. Kerek, the lawsuit also accuses the judge of retaliating against Coleman for articles that she has written that were published last year in the Call and Post, many of which address issues of public concern relative to Cleveland' Black community.
“Judge Keough is hellbent on destroying Coleman to get at the Black press indirectly,” the lawsuit reads.
Keough, 48, has 21 days to respond to the lawsuit, which also seeks an order from Ohio's high court to direct Keough to stop her alleged harassment of Coleman
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