Appellate Court Sends Lawsuit Of Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman Back To The Docket Of Judge McGinty After Reinstating His Dismissal Of It
Cuyahoga County Court Of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty
Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman
From the Metro Desk of the Determiner Weekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals has sent a lawsuit filed by African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman against Defendant Myrna R. Gill and other defendants in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas back to the docket of Cuyahoga Judge Timothy McGinty after previously reinstating claims of criminal malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress relative to Gill. Case documents reveal that Gill allegedly lied when she claimed that Coleman had merely called her when she allegedly told her not to since 2003 and that prosecutors refused to prosecute Gill after Coleman filed a criminal complaint of alleged falsification with data written by Gill noting that she and Coleman had consulted at least eight times in 2004.
A freelance journalist of 15 years who now edits the Determiner Weekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network, Coleman filed the suit after a Shaker Heights Municipal Court jury, on Oct. 28 2005, found her not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment brought by the city of Beachwood, Oh. Though she won the appeal last year the lawsuit has just recently been reinstated to McGinty's case docket for further litigation on Coleman's claims against Gill, and a possible trial by jury.
"They maliciously prosecuted me in Shaker Heights Municipal Court in 2005 at Gill's request in the midst of documentation that showed without a doubt that she had lied saying that I had harassed her since 2003 by allegedly calling her three times in one month when she allegedly told me not to, and the prosecution came after I refused to drop a counter suit against Chase Manhattan Mortgage Company that was pending before Cuyahoga Judge John O'Donnell," Coleman said. "They sought to assist Chase and to silence free speech of articles on issues of public concern pertinent to the Black community, including allegations by others of race discrimination. But more importantly, I did not call her when she allegedly told me not to where she never made such a request and she actually invited me to call for documentation she had as to the Chase litigation whereby she and others then orchestrated the malicious prosecution."
According to the suit Coleman claims, among other issues, that the criminal prosecution was malicious and in retaliation for articles that she wrote that were published in Cleveland's Call and Post Newspaper, a weekly that targets the Black community. In particular, the journalist alleges that Shaker Heights, Oh. and Beachwood officials were angry over a series of articles detailing alleged discrimination against Blacks in housing by Shaker Heights officials. Margaret Anne Cannon, the law director for the cities of Shaker Heights and Beachwood, had it in for her, says Coleman, who also encountered Cannon pursuant to Cannon's private practice representation of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District regarding litigation brought on behalf of the journalist years ago that alleged race discrimination and other claims as to her then job as a district biology teacher.
"I am again pleased that the all female and predominantly Black three-judge appellate court panel of Judges Patricia Ann Blackmon, Melody Stewart and Christine McMonagle found grounds to reinstate the claims against Gill where Judge McGinty erroneously dismissed this woman from the suit," said Coleman, who represented herself in the proceedings at both the trial court and appellate levels, including during oral argument as to the appeal. "Too often Blacks and women do not have a chance in seeking good faith redress through the courts for illegal wrongs because the system is plagued with elements of public corruption, racism and sexism."
Coleman contends that unfairness is still dominating the court forum even though the civil case has been reinstated and returned to McGinty where Gill's insurance related attorneys are illegally demanding that she be sanctioned and forced to pay Gill's legal fees.
"I hired and paid Attorney Wendell Scott Ramsey upfront to represent me as to Gill's frivolous motion for sanctions and instead of doing so he has asked Judge McGinty to allow him to withdraw," she said. "What typically happens is that these attorneys take your money and then secure permission to withdraw, and that judge then goes full speed ahead to assist municipalities and other entities to the detriment of the complaining party." Coleman said further that Ramsey allegedly failed to follow the applicable provision of the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure by refusing to certify in his withdrawal motion that it had been sent to her by certified mail.
Coleman also complains that McGinty should recuse himself from the civil matter so that a fair judge can step in, given what she sees as potential bias against her.
"The moment we met in his office in 2008 for a case management conference he began harassing me saying I had a lot of nerve proceeding without an attorney against the powerful attorneys representing Gill, Cannon, the cities of Beachwood and Shaker Heights, and other defendants," said Coleman. "Thereafter, he set up an arrest without any judicial authority where I was attacked upon leaving a civil litigation hearing regarding Chase Manhattan Mortgage Company at the Justice Center before Cuyahoga Judge John O'Donnell on Aug. 7, 2008. I was ultimately jailed in the county, with the help of booking Sgt. Kevin O'Donnell, who claims to be a relative of Judge O Donnell, who assisted Judge McGinty in setting up the arrest by summoning me to an unnecessary hearing as to the Chase litigation. At the jail I was threatened over Call and Post articles, and released without charges after the insertion of an unknown knockout drug to my body, and after I was held naked in a jail cell supervised by a disgruntled male employee."
According to the case docket, McGinty has not yet ruled on Ramsey's motion to withdraw as counsel for Coleman and other than such motion, Ramsey has filed only a notice of appearance and an extension to respond to Gill's motion that the journalist be sanctioned for winning her appeal pro se.
"It puzzles me that Judge McGinty was featured last week on the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric as the only public official to step out of his role as a neutral jurist to criticize the handling of an investigation by Cleveland police and city prosecutors around the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland," said Coleman. "Yet, he has continually been unfair relative to this litigation in dismissing the now reinstated lawsuit, harassing me at every turn, and seemingly lobbying for Shaker Heights and Beachwood officials and their attorneys, none of whom are Black."
Coleman says that the alleged harassment of her has spilled over to Cleveland because Cannon has ties there, including her previous representation of Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney as to the settlement of a sexual harassment claim brought by a former Clerk of Cleveland City Council. That harassment, she says, is being perpetuated by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough with the help of a handful of corrupt public officials, all but one of whom are Democrats.
An FBI probe of some elected Cuyahoga County officials, including certain judges of the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, is currently underway.
Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman
From the Metro Desk of the Determiner Weekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
The Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals has sent a lawsuit filed by African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman against Defendant Myrna R. Gill and other defendants in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas back to the docket of Cuyahoga Judge Timothy McGinty after previously reinstating claims of criminal malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress relative to Gill. Case documents reveal that Gill allegedly lied when she claimed that Coleman had merely called her when she allegedly told her not to since 2003 and that prosecutors refused to prosecute Gill after Coleman filed a criminal complaint of alleged falsification with data written by Gill noting that she and Coleman had consulted at least eight times in 2004.
A freelance journalist of 15 years who now edits the Determiner Weekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network, Coleman filed the suit after a Shaker Heights Municipal Court jury, on Oct. 28 2005, found her not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment brought by the city of Beachwood, Oh. Though she won the appeal last year the lawsuit has just recently been reinstated to McGinty's case docket for further litigation on Coleman's claims against Gill, and a possible trial by jury.
"They maliciously prosecuted me in Shaker Heights Municipal Court in 2005 at Gill's request in the midst of documentation that showed without a doubt that she had lied saying that I had harassed her since 2003 by allegedly calling her three times in one month when she allegedly told me not to, and the prosecution came after I refused to drop a counter suit against Chase Manhattan Mortgage Company that was pending before Cuyahoga Judge John O'Donnell," Coleman said. "They sought to assist Chase and to silence free speech of articles on issues of public concern pertinent to the Black community, including allegations by others of race discrimination. But more importantly, I did not call her when she allegedly told me not to where she never made such a request and she actually invited me to call for documentation she had as to the Chase litigation whereby she and others then orchestrated the malicious prosecution."
According to the suit Coleman claims, among other issues, that the criminal prosecution was malicious and in retaliation for articles that she wrote that were published in Cleveland's Call and Post Newspaper, a weekly that targets the Black community. In particular, the journalist alleges that Shaker Heights, Oh. and Beachwood officials were angry over a series of articles detailing alleged discrimination against Blacks in housing by Shaker Heights officials. Margaret Anne Cannon, the law director for the cities of Shaker Heights and Beachwood, had it in for her, says Coleman, who also encountered Cannon pursuant to Cannon's private practice representation of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District regarding litigation brought on behalf of the journalist years ago that alleged race discrimination and other claims as to her then job as a district biology teacher.
"I am again pleased that the all female and predominantly Black three-judge appellate court panel of Judges Patricia Ann Blackmon, Melody Stewart and Christine McMonagle found grounds to reinstate the claims against Gill where Judge McGinty erroneously dismissed this woman from the suit," said Coleman, who represented herself in the proceedings at both the trial court and appellate levels, including during oral argument as to the appeal. "Too often Blacks and women do not have a chance in seeking good faith redress through the courts for illegal wrongs because the system is plagued with elements of public corruption, racism and sexism."
Coleman contends that unfairness is still dominating the court forum even though the civil case has been reinstated and returned to McGinty where Gill's insurance related attorneys are illegally demanding that she be sanctioned and forced to pay Gill's legal fees.
"I hired and paid Attorney Wendell Scott Ramsey upfront to represent me as to Gill's frivolous motion for sanctions and instead of doing so he has asked Judge McGinty to allow him to withdraw," she said. "What typically happens is that these attorneys take your money and then secure permission to withdraw, and that judge then goes full speed ahead to assist municipalities and other entities to the detriment of the complaining party." Coleman said further that Ramsey allegedly failed to follow the applicable provision of the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure by refusing to certify in his withdrawal motion that it had been sent to her by certified mail.
Coleman also complains that McGinty should recuse himself from the civil matter so that a fair judge can step in, given what she sees as potential bias against her.
"The moment we met in his office in 2008 for a case management conference he began harassing me saying I had a lot of nerve proceeding without an attorney against the powerful attorneys representing Gill, Cannon, the cities of Beachwood and Shaker Heights, and other defendants," said Coleman. "Thereafter, he set up an arrest without any judicial authority where I was attacked upon leaving a civil litigation hearing regarding Chase Manhattan Mortgage Company at the Justice Center before Cuyahoga Judge John O'Donnell on Aug. 7, 2008. I was ultimately jailed in the county, with the help of booking Sgt. Kevin O'Donnell, who claims to be a relative of Judge O Donnell, who assisted Judge McGinty in setting up the arrest by summoning me to an unnecessary hearing as to the Chase litigation. At the jail I was threatened over Call and Post articles, and released without charges after the insertion of an unknown knockout drug to my body, and after I was held naked in a jail cell supervised by a disgruntled male employee."
According to the case docket, McGinty has not yet ruled on Ramsey's motion to withdraw as counsel for Coleman and other than such motion, Ramsey has filed only a notice of appearance and an extension to respond to Gill's motion that the journalist be sanctioned for winning her appeal pro se.
"It puzzles me that Judge McGinty was featured last week on the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric as the only public official to step out of his role as a neutral jurist to criticize the handling of an investigation by Cleveland police and city prosecutors around the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland," said Coleman. "Yet, he has continually been unfair relative to this litigation in dismissing the now reinstated lawsuit, harassing me at every turn, and seemingly lobbying for Shaker Heights and Beachwood officials and their attorneys, none of whom are Black."
Coleman says that the alleged harassment of her has spilled over to Cleveland because Cannon has ties there, including her previous representation of Cleveland City Council President Martin Sweeney as to the settlement of a sexual harassment claim brought by a former Clerk of Cleveland City Council. That harassment, she says, is being perpetuated by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough with the help of a handful of corrupt public officials, all but one of whom are Democrats.
An FBI probe of some elected Cuyahoga County officials, including certain judges of the general division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, is currently underway.
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