Judge Ambrose Issues Partial Gag Order In Anthony Sowell Capital Murder Case
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold
Suspected Serial Killer of 11 Black Women Anthony Sowell
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the Determiner Weekly.Com and the
Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
A partial gag order has been issued in the Anthony Sowell capital murder case by Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose who last month replaced Cuyahoga Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold after then Acting Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Pfeifer removed her from the case due allegedly to negative publicity. By striking contrast, Strickland Saffold is a Black Democrat, and Ambrose, a moderate White Republican.
Sowell is in custody and charged with several counts of aggravated murder and other criminal infractions after the remains of 11 Black women were found in an around his Imperial Ave. home in Cleveland's predominantly Black Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. Six of the women went missing and were allegedly killed by the formerly convicted sex offender after the city's all non-Black law enforcement top leadership team released Sowell from custody in 2008 following an attempted rape complaint from a Black woman branded "not credible."
In an order issued May 6, and just over two weeks after his assignment in the case, Ambrose granted the request by Sowell's attorneys for a gag order in part, ruling that trial evidence in the possession of unnamed agencies and agents must not be disclosed publicly and that if it is the person or persons responsible will pay, and so might the prosecution or the defense, possibly inadvertently.
"Violation of this order will be subject to sanction for contempt of court and may result in possible exclusion of evidence at trial," Ambrose said in his order.
Whether potential trial evidence otherwise admissible can constitutionally be deemed inadmissible simply because of public disclosure by agents and agencies in violation of Ambrose's partial gag order remains to be seen. And the attorneys for Sowell seem determined to quiet the Sowell matter even if it requires repeated court requests. A day after Ambrose's partial gag order was journalized Sowell attorneys Rufus Sims and John Parker filed another motion, this time asking the judge to expand his partial gag order to a complete gag order that punishes attorneys and prosecutors in the case for discussing it with the media. Prosecutors have not yet responded to that motion and Ambrose has not yet ruled on it, though some grassroots activists say a gag order is designed to hide pertinent data from public view that might embarrass certain politicians, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. His niece resided with Sowell while he was allegedly harvesting the dead bodies of a string of Black women in his home basement, his backyard, and nearby trash cans.
Rumors that Sowell's attorneys filed a request for Ambrose to overturn a previous order by Strickland Saffold that denied their motion for a change of venue to move the Sowell trial out of Cuyahoga County proved false.
Absent drastic reasons, current case law precludes Ambrose from overturning Strickland Saffold's previous denial of the change of venue request and leaves that decision to an appellate panel following trial, if an appeal is sought.
Strickland Saffold's removal from a celebrated case that has drawn national attention has some Blacks crying foul and saying it was motivated by racial animus and undue influence from her much public nemesis, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest and most influential newspaper.
Sowell's trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 7.
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold
Suspected Serial Killer of 11 Black Women Anthony Sowell
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the Determiner Weekly.Com and the
Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network
A partial gag order has been issued in the Anthony Sowell capital murder case by Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose who last month replaced Cuyahoga Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold after then Acting Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Pfeifer removed her from the case due allegedly to negative publicity. By striking contrast, Strickland Saffold is a Black Democrat, and Ambrose, a moderate White Republican.
Sowell is in custody and charged with several counts of aggravated murder and other criminal infractions after the remains of 11 Black women were found in an around his Imperial Ave. home in Cleveland's predominantly Black Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. Six of the women went missing and were allegedly killed by the formerly convicted sex offender after the city's all non-Black law enforcement top leadership team released Sowell from custody in 2008 following an attempted rape complaint from a Black woman branded "not credible."
In an order issued May 6, and just over two weeks after his assignment in the case, Ambrose granted the request by Sowell's attorneys for a gag order in part, ruling that trial evidence in the possession of unnamed agencies and agents must not be disclosed publicly and that if it is the person or persons responsible will pay, and so might the prosecution or the defense, possibly inadvertently.
"Violation of this order will be subject to sanction for contempt of court and may result in possible exclusion of evidence at trial," Ambrose said in his order.
Whether potential trial evidence otherwise admissible can constitutionally be deemed inadmissible simply because of public disclosure by agents and agencies in violation of Ambrose's partial gag order remains to be seen. And the attorneys for Sowell seem determined to quiet the Sowell matter even if it requires repeated court requests. A day after Ambrose's partial gag order was journalized Sowell attorneys Rufus Sims and John Parker filed another motion, this time asking the judge to expand his partial gag order to a complete gag order that punishes attorneys and prosecutors in the case for discussing it with the media. Prosecutors have not yet responded to that motion and Ambrose has not yet ruled on it, though some grassroots activists say a gag order is designed to hide pertinent data from public view that might embarrass certain politicians, including Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson. His niece resided with Sowell while he was allegedly harvesting the dead bodies of a string of Black women in his home basement, his backyard, and nearby trash cans.
Rumors that Sowell's attorneys filed a request for Ambrose to overturn a previous order by Strickland Saffold that denied their motion for a change of venue to move the Sowell trial out of Cuyahoga County proved false.
Absent drastic reasons, current case law precludes Ambrose from overturning Strickland Saffold's previous denial of the change of venue request and leaves that decision to an appellate panel following trial, if an appeal is sought.
Strickland Saffold's removal from a celebrated case that has drawn national attention has some Blacks crying foul and saying it was motivated by racial animus and undue influence from her much public nemesis, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest and most influential newspaper.
Sowell's trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 7.
.jpeg)
Comments