Journalist Sues County Sheriff, Jail Warden After Being Jailed, Held Naked, And Released Without Charges
Posted September 6, 2009
(National and Cleveland,Ohio Area News)
A Black freelance journalist from the Cleveland, Oh. area has sued a former county Sheriff, a jail warden, and a host of others after she was allegedly jailed last year over her writings in the Black press, held naked, given a knockout drug, supervised by a disgruntled male employee, and released four days later without charges.
Freelance journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who covered the Democratic primary and general elections last year for the Call & Post Newspaper, a weekly distributed in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Oh. that targets the African-American community, filed the 49 page lawsuit Aug. 11 in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
In the suit Coleman's attorney, Wayne Kerek, names 28 defendants including former Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul, who retired earlier this year amid an ensuing criminal investigation, the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, Jail Warden Kevin McDonough, the renown Cleveland Clinic Hospital, Lyndhurst Municipal Court Judge Mary Kaye Bozza, Retired Lorain, Oh. Municipal Court Judge Gustalo Nunez, and Matthew Fitzsimmons, a prominent area attorney. Others sued include jail nurse Patricia Ruzicka, jail booking sergeant Kevin O'Donnell, Mayfield Heights patrolman T. Parker, and the Ohio municipalities of Lyndhurst and Mayfield Heights.
"The jail Defendants and John Doe policy makers had policies, practices, customs and usages which permitted municipal court judges to place innocent victims like Plaintiff Coleman in the county jail without being charged, without being sentenced, and without any jurisdiction under R.C. Chapter 1901 to do so. Hence, Lyndhurst [Municipal Court]Visiting Judge Gustalo Nunez felt comfortable violating the law and sending Plaintiff there to get harassed and stripped naked," the lawsuit reads. "The environment was one of acceptance for malfeasance and a complete disregard for the constitutional and statutory rights of inmates, Blacks in particular."
The defendants are accused in the lawsuit of violating Coleman's civil, statutory and other rights, including her right to free speech under the First Amendment of United States Constitution, and of intentional infliction of mental and emotional distress.'
Coleman said she has no comment because the lawsuit speaks for itself, though she says that the alleged harassment is continual and that she is now an ongoing target by Cleveland City Law Director Robert Triozzi, a Cleveland Municipal Court Judge, and Cleveland Municipal Court Court Reporter Laura Williams, of whom Coleman accuses of falsifying a transript to defame her to further the harassment for the defendants named in the lawsuit.
The case is assigned to Judge Timothy McMonangle, one of 34 judges in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court General Division, where just three of the judges
are Black. Cleveland is roughly 57 percent Black and Cuyahoga County has a Black population of 29 percent.
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(National and Cleveland,Ohio Area News)
A Black freelance journalist from the Cleveland, Oh. area has sued a former county Sheriff, a jail warden, and a host of others after she was allegedly jailed last year over her writings in the Black press, held naked, given a knockout drug, supervised by a disgruntled male employee, and released four days later without charges.
Freelance journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who covered the Democratic primary and general elections last year for the Call & Post Newspaper, a weekly distributed in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Oh. that targets the African-American community, filed the 49 page lawsuit Aug. 11 in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
In the suit Coleman's attorney, Wayne Kerek, names 28 defendants including former Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul, who retired earlier this year amid an ensuing criminal investigation, the Cuyahoga County Board of Commissioners, Jail Warden Kevin McDonough, the renown Cleveland Clinic Hospital, Lyndhurst Municipal Court Judge Mary Kaye Bozza, Retired Lorain, Oh. Municipal Court Judge Gustalo Nunez, and Matthew Fitzsimmons, a prominent area attorney. Others sued include jail nurse Patricia Ruzicka, jail booking sergeant Kevin O'Donnell, Mayfield Heights patrolman T. Parker, and the Ohio municipalities of Lyndhurst and Mayfield Heights.
"The jail Defendants and John Doe policy makers had policies, practices, customs and usages which permitted municipal court judges to place innocent victims like Plaintiff Coleman in the county jail without being charged, without being sentenced, and without any jurisdiction under R.C. Chapter 1901 to do so. Hence, Lyndhurst [Municipal Court]Visiting Judge Gustalo Nunez felt comfortable violating the law and sending Plaintiff there to get harassed and stripped naked," the lawsuit reads. "The environment was one of acceptance for malfeasance and a complete disregard for the constitutional and statutory rights of inmates, Blacks in particular."
The defendants are accused in the lawsuit of violating Coleman's civil, statutory and other rights, including her right to free speech under the First Amendment of United States Constitution, and of intentional infliction of mental and emotional distress.'
Coleman said she has no comment because the lawsuit speaks for itself, though she says that the alleged harassment is continual and that she is now an ongoing target by Cleveland City Law Director Robert Triozzi, a Cleveland Municipal Court Judge, and Cleveland Municipal Court Court Reporter Laura Williams, of whom Coleman accuses of falsifying a transript to defame her to further the harassment for the defendants named in the lawsuit.
The case is assigned to Judge Timothy McMonangle, one of 34 judges in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court General Division, where just three of the judges
are Black. Cleveland is roughly 57 percent Black and Cuyahoga County has a Black population of 29 percent.
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