Five Families Of Imperial Avenue Murder Victims Sue City of Cleveland, Others Relative To Sowell Capital Murder Case
Serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) Changed from the stolen domain name of www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblogandmedianetwork.com that godaddy compromised in an attempt to silence free speech
Lawsuits filed Wednesday in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas by the families of five of the 11 victims whose remains were uncovered last year at the home of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell may bring to light the reason Sowell was released from custody in 2008 when an attempted rape complaint by Gladys Wade was deemed "not credible. She said that Sowell tried to rape her but she got away, and that Sowell was let go even though polioce said the walls of his home were lined with blood and it "smelled of death."
"Its been an entire year and our legal system is still the same, ignoring citizens complaints and their concerns," said Denise Hunter, a sister of slain Imperial Avenue victim Amelda Hunter and cousin to Crystal Dozier, whose murders represent a double tragedy for the Dozier-Hunter families. "It is time for a change and domestic violence and murder are on the rise."
The six Black women who were murdered after Sowell was released from custody in 2008 might be alive today if it were not for police neglect and malfeasance of city officials, the lawsuits say. Those women are Hunter, Janice Webb, Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Nancy Cobbs and Kim Yvette Smith, and of the families of those six, all but Smith filed suit on Wednesday via attorneys Terry Gilbert and Jeff Friedman.
Wade filed suit earlier this year and so did Florence Bray, Dozier's mother and an aunt to Hunter. They are both represented by attorney David Malik, who in June secured a $3.375 million settlement for a wrongful death suit for the family of R & B singer Sean Levert, allegedly killed via neglect by county jail personnel and doctors when he was jailed in 2008 on child support charges.
Sean Levert is the son of Eddie Levert, the lead singer of the famed 70's R & B group dubbed "The O'Jay's."
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan, infamous as one of a handful of Cuyahoga judges that rarely dismisses bogus malicious prosecution cases under Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure against the predominantly Black defendants due to a lack of evidence, has Bray's case, and Cuyahoga Judge Brennan Sheenan, a former assistant county prosecutor under county prosecutor Bill Mason, has the case filed on Wade's behalf.
In addition to the families of the Imperial Eleven, parties to the seven lawsuits include Sowell, and the City of Cleveland, with claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and neglect, among others.
The 51-year-old Sowell is now in custody awaiting trial set for Feb 14. on numerous counts of aggravated, murder, rape, and kidnapping, which include the alleged rape of Wade, a charge filed after an indictment by the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury earlier this year following community outcry as to his release in 2008.
After the city announced what would ultimately be the remains of the 11 Black murdered women Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson allegedly had Black clergy and others lure in specific family members of the victims, including a son of Hunter, and gave them as little money as $900 for what the city thought was a release from suit before suit by any of the families was ever filed. The mayor is accused of then targeting grassroots leaders such as community activist Kathy Wray Coleman for illegal jailing via Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, whom he endorsed for her recent win as to a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that commences next year. This, say activists, was a desparate attempt to silence the Imperial Avenue Murders issue and to protect the city from liability.
"We are pleased that the City of Cleveland, city officials and police will now be called to task for apparent neglect and malfeasance around the unprecedented murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave in Cleveland, Oh., six of whom might be alive today if Sowell were not arbitrarily released from custody on an attempted rape complaint in 2008," said Coleman, a leader of the grassroots group the Imperial Women. "Now is as good of time as ever for Mayor Jackson and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes to demand an immediate investigation around Sowell's release in 2008. If Mr. Forbes can speak out for Black men that patronize bars at Cleveland's Warehouse District he can speak up for 11 murdered Black women."
Coleman said that the Imperial Women and other grassroots factions will also be seeking an apology from Jackson on behalf of the city as to the murders of the women and Sowell's release in 2008. She said that she and other members of the Imperial Women are talking with members of other grassroots factions to decide the date and time that they will hold either a press conference or rally seeking such.
"If Judge Kathleen Ann Keough can demand that Blacks apologize to police behind alleged impropriety, whether warranted or not, it is only fair that Mayor Jackson, on behalf of the city, apologize to the families of the Imperial Eleven, particularly those of the six that went missing after either his appointees or his police force released Sowell from custody in 2008 on a credible attempted rape complaint by Ms. Wade," said Coleman.
A former marine, Sowell had served 15 years in prison on an attempted rape conviction before he was released to allegedly kill 11 Black women in Cleveland's impoverished Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.
Jackson has no Blacks or women as law director, safety director, chief prosecutor, chief of police or EMS commissioner, though the City of Cleveland is roughly 57 percent Black and is majority female.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, Editor of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) Changed from the stolen domain name of www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblogandmedianetwork.com that godaddy compromised in an attempt to silence free speech
Lawsuits filed Wednesday in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas by the families of five of the 11 victims whose remains were uncovered last year at the home of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell may bring to light the reason Sowell was released from custody in 2008 when an attempted rape complaint by Gladys Wade was deemed "not credible. She said that Sowell tried to rape her but she got away, and that Sowell was let go even though polioce said the walls of his home were lined with blood and it "smelled of death."
"Its been an entire year and our legal system is still the same, ignoring citizens complaints and their concerns," said Denise Hunter, a sister of slain Imperial Avenue victim Amelda Hunter and cousin to Crystal Dozier, whose murders represent a double tragedy for the Dozier-Hunter families. "It is time for a change and domestic violence and murder are on the rise."
The six Black women who were murdered after Sowell was released from custody in 2008 might be alive today if it were not for police neglect and malfeasance of city officials, the lawsuits say. Those women are Hunter, Janice Webb, Diane Turner, Telacia Fortson, Nancy Cobbs and Kim Yvette Smith, and of the families of those six, all but Smith filed suit on Wednesday via attorneys Terry Gilbert and Jeff Friedman.
Wade filed suit earlier this year and so did Florence Bray, Dozier's mother and an aunt to Hunter. They are both represented by attorney David Malik, who in June secured a $3.375 million settlement for a wrongful death suit for the family of R & B singer Sean Levert, allegedly killed via neglect by county jail personnel and doctors when he was jailed in 2008 on child support charges.
Sean Levert is the son of Eddie Levert, the lead singer of the famed 70's R & B group dubbed "The O'Jay's."
Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan, infamous as one of a handful of Cuyahoga judges that rarely dismisses bogus malicious prosecution cases under Rule 29 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure against the predominantly Black defendants due to a lack of evidence, has Bray's case, and Cuyahoga Judge Brennan Sheenan, a former assistant county prosecutor under county prosecutor Bill Mason, has the case filed on Wade's behalf.
In addition to the families of the Imperial Eleven, parties to the seven lawsuits include Sowell, and the City of Cleveland, with claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and neglect, among others.
The 51-year-old Sowell is now in custody awaiting trial set for Feb 14. on numerous counts of aggravated, murder, rape, and kidnapping, which include the alleged rape of Wade, a charge filed after an indictment by the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury earlier this year following community outcry as to his release in 2008.
After the city announced what would ultimately be the remains of the 11 Black murdered women Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson allegedly had Black clergy and others lure in specific family members of the victims, including a son of Hunter, and gave them as little money as $900 for what the city thought was a release from suit before suit by any of the families was ever filed. The mayor is accused of then targeting grassroots leaders such as community activist Kathy Wray Coleman for illegal jailing via Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, whom he endorsed for her recent win as to a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals that commences next year. This, say activists, was a desparate attempt to silence the Imperial Avenue Murders issue and to protect the city from liability.
"We are pleased that the City of Cleveland, city officials and police will now be called to task for apparent neglect and malfeasance around the unprecedented murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Ave in Cleveland, Oh., six of whom might be alive today if Sowell were not arbitrarily released from custody on an attempted rape complaint in 2008," said Coleman, a leader of the grassroots group the Imperial Women. "Now is as good of time as ever for Mayor Jackson and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes to demand an immediate investigation around Sowell's release in 2008. If Mr. Forbes can speak out for Black men that patronize bars at Cleveland's Warehouse District he can speak up for 11 murdered Black women."
Coleman said that the Imperial Women and other grassroots factions will also be seeking an apology from Jackson on behalf of the city as to the murders of the women and Sowell's release in 2008. She said that she and other members of the Imperial Women are talking with members of other grassroots factions to decide the date and time that they will hold either a press conference or rally seeking such.
"If Judge Kathleen Ann Keough can demand that Blacks apologize to police behind alleged impropriety, whether warranted or not, it is only fair that Mayor Jackson, on behalf of the city, apologize to the families of the Imperial Eleven, particularly those of the six that went missing after either his appointees or his police force released Sowell from custody in 2008 on a credible attempted rape complaint by Ms. Wade," said Coleman.
A former marine, Sowell had served 15 years in prison on an attempted rape conviction before he was released to allegedly kill 11 Black women in Cleveland's impoverished Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.
Jackson has no Blacks or women as law director, safety director, chief prosecutor, chief of police or EMS commissioner, though the City of Cleveland is roughly 57 percent Black and is majority female.
Comments
Not only are Sowell's crimes horrifying, but it looks like they might have been preventable.
I'm going to give the Cleveland PD and prosecutor the benefit of the doubt, and assume that they weren't motivated by malice or deliberate indifference when they released Sowell for a lack of evidence.
More likely, they were simply understaffed and overworked. Of course, this adds another layer of tragedy, since it implies that if our leaders at every level had their priorities straight, these crimes might have been stopped.