Black Journalist To File Prejudice Affidavit Against Judge McGinty In Ohio Supreme Court
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeeklyCom and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman says that she will file an affidavit of prejudice next week against Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty with Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown for review and subsequent determination on whether McGinty has the judicial temperament to be fair with respect to a lawsuit before him where she is the plaintiff. State law gives the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court sole authority to decide affidavits of prejudice filed against Ohio Court of Common Pleas judges. They hear felony criminal cases, lawsuits where damages in excess of $15 thousand are sought, and other legal matters.
If Coleman's prejudice affidavit is granted, McGinty will be replaced in the case with another judge.
Coleman said that a change of venue to a common pleas court out of Cuyahoga County is also necessary due to alleged harassment from Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough who is a friend of McGinty and some of his colleagues, and Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, who is Keough's attorney relative to lawsuits filed by Black defendants accusing the White female judge of breaking the law. Triozzi, says Coleman, is an at will and appointed city employee who has been slated to bring malicious and unfounded criminal charges against Blacks on behalf of the City of Cleveland in cases that Keough volunteers to preside over in alleged exchange for subsequent judicial endorsements of her by Cleveland city officials and the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper.
"Judge McGinty is in my opinion the most pitiful and corrupt judge in this state," said Coleman. "And he is now being exposed for what he truly is, a hypocrite with a short man's complex who is a source to local media and a bully still acting as an assistant county prosecutor rather than a neutral trier of law."
A Cleveland area journalist of 16 years, Coleman claims that McGinty has harassed her since he was assigned to hear a lawsuit that she filed in 2008 against the municipalities of Shaker Hts. and Beachwood, Margaret Anne Cannon, who serves as law director for both cities, Retired Beachwood Businesswoman Myrna R. Gill, 69, and a host of others, all of whom are White. The suit alleges, among other claims, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, and malicious prosecution around a prosecution pursued by the City of Beachwood in the Shaker Hts. Municipal Court in 2005 that she says was in retaliation for a host of articles written by her and published by the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper as to alleged housing discrimination against Blacks by Cannon and other Shaker Hts. officials.
One article in particular, says Coleman, quotes the Rev. Sean Tucker, who was ordained and trained under the Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle, a Princeton University graduate, Shaker Hts. resident, and long time pastor of the prestigious Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland. Tucker said in the article in question that he and his family were harassed by Shaker Hts officials in an effort to steal an apartment complex that he would not sale under fair market value to the City of Shaker Hts for economic development purposes. He is quoted in the Call and Post as saying that the alleged mistreatment was commensurate to the Hollywood movie "Rosewood" where a Black town is raided by racist bigots and Blacks are killed and their bodies thrown into a dirt pit.
Though Shaker officials ultimately settled the housing dispute with Tucker with a fair market buy of the apartment complex at issue following Call and Post articles and protests by grassroots factions at Shaker Hts City Council meetings, Coleman said that Cannon had it in for her and orchestrated the malicious prosecution undertaken in 2005. A diverse Shaker Hts jury, however, found her not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment in October of that year. That criminal charge, says Coleman, came after Gill lied to police and city prosecutors per their request saying the journalist called her three times in Nov. 2003 after she allegedly told her not to and after their business relationship had dissolved. Though Cleveland Attorney Terry Gilbert,who was paid by Coleman to represent her in the criminal case, gave prosecutors copies of documents written by Gill showing that she and Coleman had met at least eight times in 2004 and advised that there was no evidence that Gill told her not to call Coleman says the prosecution went forward anyway. And according to Coleman, after Call and Post officials advised that she reject an illegal demand by Shaker Hts and Beachwood city officials that she agree not to sue for illegal wrongs and to stop writing on race issues in exchange for dismissal of the malicious and bogus criminal charge.
McGinty threw out Coleman's lawsuit in Sept 2008 in what Coleman claims was to help Shaker Hts. and Beachwood officials, to gain favors because he is a former assistant county prosecutor, and due to his alleged disdain for Blacks, women and the little people. But an all female predominantly Black three-judge panel of the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals last year reinstated Gill as a defendant in the suit, and the claims against her, including malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Coleman says that the reinstatement of the lawsuit angered McGinty so he then retaliated and refused a Case Management Conference on remand as required by Local Common Pleas Rule 21 to determine an agreed upon date by the parties for the filing of dispositive motions.
Earlier this month Gill's attorneys, hired by her insurance carrier relative to Coleman's pending claims against her, moved to dismiss the lawsuit with McGinty's help via the filing of a motion for summary judgement, after McGinty refused discovery on remand from the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, and allowed her former attorney, Wendell Scott Ramsey, to withdraw without seeking an extension for her to secure substitute counsel as required to protect her interests. This week he would not give her new attorney time to study the case and respond to the dismissal motion . Her new attorney, Wayne Kerek, had also asked McGinty to voluntarily recuse himself from the case since he was involved in Coleman's illegal jailing in the county in 2008 and due to his alleged harassment of her throughout the proceedings.
"We will just have to file the affidavit of prejudice," said Kerek. "Local Common Pleas Rule 21 is clear and requires a Case Management Conference before a dispositive motion deadline is set and given what Kathy has been through as to an illegal jailing in 2008 without charges to this day with Judge McGinty's alleged involvement, it is only common sense, not to mention what we believe is required by the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct, that the judge either recuses himself in this matter or is potentially removed by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown."
Coleman appears emphatic about the necessity of McGinty's removal from the case.
"Judge McGinty cannot stand losing on appeal and since he is a source to the Plain Dealer as to the Anthony Sowell case and allegedly other Black defendants he believes that he can do as he pleases in alleged violation of state and federal law, the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, the Judicial Code of Conduct and the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility," she said.
According to Cuyahoga floating staff attorney Erin O'Malley McGinty, through his staff attorney, arranged with no jurisdiction or authority whatsoever, an arrest of Coleman in August 2008 as she was leaving an unrelated civil hearing at the Justice Center arranged unnecessarily before Cuyahoga Judge John O'Donnell as a means to lure her there for an illegal arrest. She was allegedly dragged to the county jail on Aug. 8, 2008, given a knockout drug, held naked by a disgruntled male employee, and released four days later without charges when prominent local attorney Sara J. Harper came and got her. Coleman says that upon entering the Cuyahoga County jail Sgt. Kevin O'Donnell, who claimed to be a relative of Judge O'Donnell", allegedly said that "we made special arrangements for you to be here."
Coleman acted as her own attorney at the trial court level and through the successful appeal that got parts of the Shaker Hts. suit that McGinty threw out reinstated, but she says she needs counsel of record because she believes McGinty is allegedly harassing her in retaliation for her winning an appeal, his status as a former assistant county prosecutor, and his ongoing efforts to help the cities of Shaker Hts and Beachwood save face as to malicious prosecutions against Blacks and women by Cannon and Beachwood officials in Shaker Heights Municipal Court.
"Why the FBI lets Judge McGinty do as he pleases puzzles me," said Coleman. "We shall watch and see if the sound affidavit of prejudice that will be filed against him will get the same attention as the one filed against Black Cuyahoga Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold relative to her removal in the Anthony Sowell capital murder case by then acting Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Pfeifer. Judge McGinty is White and male and gender and racial equity and fairness are second hand to systemic racism, sexism, and malfeasance in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, in most instances. I hope that the recent presence of a Democratic Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice will bring fairness to the process of addressing meritorious affidavits of prejudice filed against applicable corrupt and racist judges in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas general dividion, where only three of the 34 elected judges are Black."
Coleman says that McGinty has unsuccessfully lobbied Cleveland NAACP officials to help him quiet allegations of judicial harassment against Blacks and women via what he allegedly thought was a judicial favor.
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeeklyCom and
the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
African-American Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman says that she will file an affidavit of prejudice next week against Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty with Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown for review and subsequent determination on whether McGinty has the judicial temperament to be fair with respect to a lawsuit before him where she is the plaintiff. State law gives the Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court sole authority to decide affidavits of prejudice filed against Ohio Court of Common Pleas judges. They hear felony criminal cases, lawsuits where damages in excess of $15 thousand are sought, and other legal matters.
If Coleman's prejudice affidavit is granted, McGinty will be replaced in the case with another judge.
Coleman said that a change of venue to a common pleas court out of Cuyahoga County is also necessary due to alleged harassment from Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough who is a friend of McGinty and some of his colleagues, and Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, who is Keough's attorney relative to lawsuits filed by Black defendants accusing the White female judge of breaking the law. Triozzi, says Coleman, is an at will and appointed city employee who has been slated to bring malicious and unfounded criminal charges against Blacks on behalf of the City of Cleveland in cases that Keough volunteers to preside over in alleged exchange for subsequent judicial endorsements of her by Cleveland city officials and the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper.
"Judge McGinty is in my opinion the most pitiful and corrupt judge in this state," said Coleman. "And he is now being exposed for what he truly is, a hypocrite with a short man's complex who is a source to local media and a bully still acting as an assistant county prosecutor rather than a neutral trier of law."
A Cleveland area journalist of 16 years, Coleman claims that McGinty has harassed her since he was assigned to hear a lawsuit that she filed in 2008 against the municipalities of Shaker Hts. and Beachwood, Margaret Anne Cannon, who serves as law director for both cities, Retired Beachwood Businesswoman Myrna R. Gill, 69, and a host of others, all of whom are White. The suit alleges, among other claims, intentional infliction of emotional distress, abuse of process, and malicious prosecution around a prosecution pursued by the City of Beachwood in the Shaker Hts. Municipal Court in 2005 that she says was in retaliation for a host of articles written by her and published by the Cleveland Call and Post Newspaper as to alleged housing discrimination against Blacks by Cannon and other Shaker Hts. officials.
One article in particular, says Coleman, quotes the Rev. Sean Tucker, who was ordained and trained under the Rev. Dr. Marvin McMickle, a Princeton University graduate, Shaker Hts. resident, and long time pastor of the prestigious Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland. Tucker said in the article in question that he and his family were harassed by Shaker Hts officials in an effort to steal an apartment complex that he would not sale under fair market value to the City of Shaker Hts for economic development purposes. He is quoted in the Call and Post as saying that the alleged mistreatment was commensurate to the Hollywood movie "Rosewood" where a Black town is raided by racist bigots and Blacks are killed and their bodies thrown into a dirt pit.
Though Shaker officials ultimately settled the housing dispute with Tucker with a fair market buy of the apartment complex at issue following Call and Post articles and protests by grassroots factions at Shaker Hts City Council meetings, Coleman said that Cannon had it in for her and orchestrated the malicious prosecution undertaken in 2005. A diverse Shaker Hts jury, however, found her not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of telecommunications harassment in October of that year. That criminal charge, says Coleman, came after Gill lied to police and city prosecutors per their request saying the journalist called her three times in Nov. 2003 after she allegedly told her not to and after their business relationship had dissolved. Though Cleveland Attorney Terry Gilbert,who was paid by Coleman to represent her in the criminal case, gave prosecutors copies of documents written by Gill showing that she and Coleman had met at least eight times in 2004 and advised that there was no evidence that Gill told her not to call Coleman says the prosecution went forward anyway. And according to Coleman, after Call and Post officials advised that she reject an illegal demand by Shaker Hts and Beachwood city officials that she agree not to sue for illegal wrongs and to stop writing on race issues in exchange for dismissal of the malicious and bogus criminal charge.
McGinty threw out Coleman's lawsuit in Sept 2008 in what Coleman claims was to help Shaker Hts. and Beachwood officials, to gain favors because he is a former assistant county prosecutor, and due to his alleged disdain for Blacks, women and the little people. But an all female predominantly Black three-judge panel of the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals last year reinstated Gill as a defendant in the suit, and the claims against her, including malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Coleman says that the reinstatement of the lawsuit angered McGinty so he then retaliated and refused a Case Management Conference on remand as required by Local Common Pleas Rule 21 to determine an agreed upon date by the parties for the filing of dispositive motions.
Earlier this month Gill's attorneys, hired by her insurance carrier relative to Coleman's pending claims against her, moved to dismiss the lawsuit with McGinty's help via the filing of a motion for summary judgement, after McGinty refused discovery on remand from the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, and allowed her former attorney, Wendell Scott Ramsey, to withdraw without seeking an extension for her to secure substitute counsel as required to protect her interests. This week he would not give her new attorney time to study the case and respond to the dismissal motion . Her new attorney, Wayne Kerek, had also asked McGinty to voluntarily recuse himself from the case since he was involved in Coleman's illegal jailing in the county in 2008 and due to his alleged harassment of her throughout the proceedings.
"We will just have to file the affidavit of prejudice," said Kerek. "Local Common Pleas Rule 21 is clear and requires a Case Management Conference before a dispositive motion deadline is set and given what Kathy has been through as to an illegal jailing in 2008 without charges to this day with Judge McGinty's alleged involvement, it is only common sense, not to mention what we believe is required by the Ohio Judicial Code of Conduct, that the judge either recuses himself in this matter or is potentially removed by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Brown."
Coleman appears emphatic about the necessity of McGinty's removal from the case.
"Judge McGinty cannot stand losing on appeal and since he is a source to the Plain Dealer as to the Anthony Sowell case and allegedly other Black defendants he believes that he can do as he pleases in alleged violation of state and federal law, the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure, the Judicial Code of Conduct and the Ohio Lawyer's Professional Code of Responsibility," she said.
According to Cuyahoga floating staff attorney Erin O'Malley McGinty, through his staff attorney, arranged with no jurisdiction or authority whatsoever, an arrest of Coleman in August 2008 as she was leaving an unrelated civil hearing at the Justice Center arranged unnecessarily before Cuyahoga Judge John O'Donnell as a means to lure her there for an illegal arrest. She was allegedly dragged to the county jail on Aug. 8, 2008, given a knockout drug, held naked by a disgruntled male employee, and released four days later without charges when prominent local attorney Sara J. Harper came and got her. Coleman says that upon entering the Cuyahoga County jail Sgt. Kevin O'Donnell, who claimed to be a relative of Judge O'Donnell", allegedly said that "we made special arrangements for you to be here."
Coleman acted as her own attorney at the trial court level and through the successful appeal that got parts of the Shaker Hts. suit that McGinty threw out reinstated, but she says she needs counsel of record because she believes McGinty is allegedly harassing her in retaliation for her winning an appeal, his status as a former assistant county prosecutor, and his ongoing efforts to help the cities of Shaker Hts and Beachwood save face as to malicious prosecutions against Blacks and women by Cannon and Beachwood officials in Shaker Heights Municipal Court.
"Why the FBI lets Judge McGinty do as he pleases puzzles me," said Coleman. "We shall watch and see if the sound affidavit of prejudice that will be filed against him will get the same attention as the one filed against Black Cuyahoga Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold relative to her removal in the Anthony Sowell capital murder case by then acting Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Pfeifer. Judge McGinty is White and male and gender and racial equity and fairness are second hand to systemic racism, sexism, and malfeasance in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, in most instances. I hope that the recent presence of a Democratic Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice will bring fairness to the process of addressing meritorious affidavits of prejudice filed against applicable corrupt and racist judges in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas general dividion, where only three of the 34 elected judges are Black."
Coleman says that McGinty has unsuccessfully lobbied Cleveland NAACP officials to help him quiet allegations of judicial harassment against Blacks and women via what he allegedly thought was a judicial favor.
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