Federal District Court Injunction Request Filed Against Judge Keough In Journalist Coleman's Lawsuit Against Her And Mayor Jackson

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough
Journalist Kathy Wray Coleman

From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and
The Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog and Media Network

A federal court injunction has been sought against Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough to stop her from sentencing local Black journalist Kathy Wray Coleman on a bogus resisting arrest verdict that the judge is accused of orchestrating via illegal jury instructions and collusion at trial with prosecutors and Coleman's paid trial attorney, Carole A. Lohr. And grassroots activists are upset because the verdict came without any complaint or testimony from the sole arresting officer, Cuyahoga County Deputy Sheriff Gerald Pace.

Following a two day trial held last May Coleman, a 16 year journalist and longtime community activist, was exonerated by a Cleveland jury on each and every charge for which she says she was illegally arrested, including aggravated disorderly conduct and making false alarms. Two months ago an attorney filed suit on her behalf alleging malicious prosecution and a host of other claims, a suit that Coleman says prompted Keough and Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson to have her jailed three weeks ago in the Cleveland City Jail where she was allegedly harassed and threatened, and forced to lay on a urine soaked dirty floor cot with no bedding that was surrounded by trash and dirt. The harassment got so bad that Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Anita Laster Mays issued an order directing jail officials not to take Coleman back to the jail after she had posted bond, and was being held illegally.

Keough is a defendant in the lawsuit before Federal District Court Judge Donald Nugent, who has been requested to issue the injunction order. Among others, the suit also names Jackson, Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez, Cleveland Assistant City Prosecutor Lorraine Coyne, Cleveland Assistant City Prosecutor Joan Bascone, Cleveland EMS Commissioner Edward Eckart, Cleveland attorneys Wendell Scott Ramsey and Lohr, and the City of Cleveland.

The law clerk for Judge Nugent did not brush off the request for an injunction at a status conference earlier this week, according to Coleman's attorney in the case, who said also that two of the lawyers in attendance allegedly laughed when he handed them a copy of it.

"They started laughing immediately but paused when Judge Nugent's law clerk sent the message that the matter is not a laughing matter," said the attorney.

The injunction request alleges no other adequate remedy in the immediate and ordinary course of the law and says that Keough should not be allowed to sentence Coleman because she is allegedly retaliating in response to the lawsuit as opposed to throwing out a resisting arrest verdict that came without an accusation of such from the arresting officer as well as Coleman's constitutional right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution. It further says that since the misdemeanor resisting arrest charge was brought by Triozzi on behalf of the city and he is a former judge and colleague of Keough's who represents her in state appellate proceedings as to writs of prohibitions and other filings, she should not be presiding over the matter to harass Coleman. Coleman's attorney said also in the request for an injunction that Keough issued an illegal capias warrant against her even after contacting the hospital the morning of her illegal sentencing date on the illegal resisting arrest verdict and being told that Coleman's blood pressure was 200 over 100 and that she should reschedule the hearing.

The injunction request also addresses Keough's falsification of the case docket where she denotes a conviction or charge of aggravated disorderly conduct that Coleman was exonerated of along with all other charges other than resisting arrest. It goes on to say that the judge is under investigation by the FBI as to her actions in the case and that in addition to the Triozzi conflict she should have recused herself from the case last year after she issued harassing orders impacting Coleman's substantial rights while an affidavit of prejudice was pending against her. At least two judges have been suspended for 2 years by the Ohio Supreme Court for harassing litigants or criminal defendants while an affidavit of prejudice was pending.

Nugent has not yet ruled on the injunction request.

Coleman says that the Keough fiasco is a clear case of racism, which she says is alive and well in America along with sexism and political and judicial corruption.

"The main reason that Judge Keough can get away with all of this is because she is White and I am Black," said Coleman. " I also have to deal with some Blacks that feel so inherently inferior that they believe that the United States Constitution does not apply to us."

According to the veteran journalist, who holds a bachelor's degree in biological science and two master's degrees, the malicious prosecution stems from 38 articles that she wrote on race issues and were published in the Call and Post Newspaper in 2008, her community activism, and a lawsuit she filed in 2008 seeking compliance with state law as to the assignment process for municipal court judges in Ohio. That law (Ohio Revised Code 2701.031), in conjunction with Rule 17 of the Ohio Rules of Superintendence, requires that replacement judges for those disqualified voluntarily or involuntarily are elected and live in the community as opposed to retired judges from far away places like Astabula County who are often accused of violating the law and harassing parties in civil and criminal matters and then running back home.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Former WOIO 19 Action News Anchor in Cleveland Sharon Reed lands new anchor job, her lawyer says rumors about LeBron James fathering her baby are false, had threatened to sue on her behalf, Reed is famous for posing nude for Spenser Tunick's nude group photo shoot

Corrupt and racist University Heights Mayor Susan Infeld is booted from office by voters following claims of spending irregularities of taxpayers money, racism against Black residents, police abuse of Blacks as city safety director, and of running a theft ring of county residents homes via illegal foreclosure activity led by JPMorgan Chase Bank.....University Heights is a Cleveland suburb....Others involved in the theft ring or retaliation against homeowners who complain include corrupt common pleas judges such as Judges John O'Donnell and Carolyn Friedland, Chief County Foreclosure Magistrate and University Heights Resident Stephen Bucha, and his wife, an attorney with the law firm of Lerner Sampson and Rothfuss, who represents corrupt mortgage companies and banks, including JP Morgan Chase Bank... Others involved include racist and corrupt University Hts Police Sgt Dale Orians, former county prosecutor Bill Mason, who is a partner with Bricker and Eckler, which represents JPMorgan Chase Bank, and current County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, who was Mason's deputy....Drunken Shaker Heights Judge KJ Montgomery, who also hears criminal cases for University Hts, has Blacks illegally prosecuted who complain of the theft of their homes, as does O'Malley..... Judge Montgomery is top in issuing excessive and illegal warrants against the Black community....All of the aforementioned are corrupt and activists want them indicted and prosecuted....This is Part 1 of a multi-part series on Cuyahoga County public corruption by Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com

Chief and unfair Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo loses authority-Part 2 of a multi-part series on Cuyahoga County public corruption: New Ohio law on seeking possible removal of a municipal court judge in a case for bias or conflict via the filing of an affidavit of prejudice takes authority to decide from chief Cuyahoga County Presiding Judge John Russo, other chief common pleas judges in Ohio, and hands it to the chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, who also determines affidavits of prejudice filed against common pleas, probate, juvenile, domestic relations, and state appellate court judges....Most affidavits of prejudice are denied regardless of the merits and some judges complained of will retaliate, data show... Community activists, led by Cleveland activist Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition, lobbied the Cleveland NAACP for support and asked state legislators via state Rep Bill Patmon (D-10) of Cleveland to change the law but wanted a panel of judges and others to decide when a judge in Ohio is disqualified from hearing a case for bias or conflict....Coleman says she has since been further harassed by Chief Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo, who is White and leads a racist and sexist common pleas court fueled with corruption, malicious prosecutions, excessive criminal bonds, ineffective assistance of counsel to poor and Black defendants, and the mass incarceration of the Black community....By www.clevelandurbannews.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers....This is part 2 of a multi-part series on Cuyahoga County public corruption