Imperial Women, Grassroots Give NAACP Until Jan 25 To Meet On Issues As To Blacks And Women Or Will Protest, Plan NAACP Grassroots Membership Drive

From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.determinerweekly.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

A group of about 18 grassroots leaders and some family members of the 11 Black women whose remains were uncovered in Oct. of 2009 at a house on Imperial Ave in Cleveland met Jan 18 to develop strategy around the Cleveland NAACP's apathy around issues pertaining to Blacks and women and to initiate a NAACP grassroots membership drive.

The group voted as follows: 1) To remain a coalition and to keep coalition issues; 2) To again assign Community Activist Judy Martin to continue to confer on behalf of the group solely with Executive Director Stanley Miller, rather than any designated community liaison of the Cleveland NAACP, on a meeting date with branch officers, Miller and the executive committee as to the coalition issues; 3) To give Miller until Jan. 25 to give a date in Jan for the meeting and to protest at the next scheduled Cleveland NAACP meeting if a January meeting is not held; 4) To begin a grassroots membership drive under the leadership of Ward 6 Precinct Committee person Frances Caldwell, who is also executive director of the African-American Museum in Cleveland, and to meet on Jan 25 to distribute 800 raffle tickets among group members for sponsorships; and, 5) To remain unified as a coalition. (Note: Martin noted that she had spoken with Miller and that she expects that he will get back with her in due time with a meeting date as to the coalition issues).

Those in attendance at the meeting of the Imperial Women Coalition, all of whom voted to protest the Cleveland NAACP at its next meeting if a Jan meeting date is not set by Jan 25, include the following:

Kathy Wray Coleman- Local journalist and a leader of the Imperial Women

Tina Bronaugh- The Imperial Women, the Carl Stokes Brigade and mother of Destini Bronaugh

Ada Averyhart- The Carl Stokes Brigade, the Imperial Women

Denise Hunter- The Imperial Women , sister of slain Imperial Ave victim Amelda
Hunter and cousin of Imperial Ave. victim Crystal Dozier

John Hunter- The Imperial Women , brother of slain Imperial Ave victim Amelda Hunter and cousin of Imperial Ave. victim Crystal Dozier

Roz McAllister- The Imperial Women, Ohio Rights

Willie Stokes- The Imperial Women, the Carl Stokes Brigade

Marva Patterson-The Imperial Women, the Carl Stokes Brigade, People for the Imperial
Act, Black on Black Crime and the aunt and sister-in-law to the Rebeccas Whitby

Denise Taylor (and her male companion)-The Imperial Women and aunt of Joaquin Hicks

Frances Caldwell- Ward 6 Precinct Committee person and executive director of Cleveland's African-American Museum

Judy Martin- The Imperial Women, Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, Black on Black Crime

Valerie Robinson- Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Imperial Women

Stewart Robinson- Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Imperial Women

Jean (last name unknown)- The Imperial Women, Black on Black Crime

Also at the meeting, a letter for
Cleveland NAACP officials as to the coalition issues was distributed and reads as follows:

The Imperial Women and the coalition of the Imperial Women, Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, members of Black on Black Crime and the Carl Stokes Brigade, the People's Forum, Peace in the Hood, the Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor, the Lucasville Uprising Freedom Network, People for the Imperial Act, the Oppressed People's Nation, Cleveland FIST, Workers World, Revolution Books and Bail Out the People Movement request support and an audience with Cleveland NAACP executive director Stanley Miller, branch officers and the executive committee on the following issues:

- The necessity of a state law proposed by state legislators that precludes Ohio judges from being represented by county and city prosecutors and law directors for municipalities or otherwise in legal proceedings such as the filings of petitions for writs of prohibitions that seek compliance with the law and other legal authorities and affidavits of prejudice against the judges where these prosecutors and law directors that bring charges against people for municipalities and the State of Ohio are in essence their lawyers and therefore have undue influence. Such potential influence includes sentencing, motions to dismiss malicious prosecution cases against Blacks and others and a host of other anti-due process and anti-Democratic activities. (Note: Judges that have been represented in legal proceedings either by the offices of the county prosecutor or Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi include outgoing Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough and Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty).

- An investigation as to the reassignment process of municipal and common pleas judges replaced in cases of bias or conflict of the sitting judges or for any other reason, and a push for Black and other state legislators to introduce proposed legislation that requires assignments of cases to Ohio judges by computer generated random draw at all times and that those judges are sitting judges accountable to the community.(While some courts initially select by random draw, judges often recuse themselves or are removed from cases and this is when potential case fixing or the handpicking of judges for certain cases occur. i.e. a hanging judge to push plea bargains against innocent young Black men and otherwise)

-The request for support for the dismissal of all criminal charges before Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough against Destini Bronaugh, 19, the Collinwood High School graduate subject to malicious prosecution by Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi and the City of Cleveland in retaliation for a peaceful student protest at the school in May around school closings and teacher layoffs. (Note: We also seek an investigation of police conduct around this issue and a report to the community. And for the record Judge Keough has been replaced, though we reference her as still sitting in the Cleveland Municipal Court seat for purposes of this article to highlight the impropriety and we expect her replacement to dismiss the charges that Judge Keough would not dismiss due to her relationships with those that assisted her in winning in November, a seat on the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals).

-The request for support for the dismissal of all criminal charges against college student Rebecca Whitby, 25, and her mother, also named Rebecca Whitby, that came after an internal police complaint that the younger Whitby was called a "nigger" and beat up by Cleveland Fifth District Police without just cause, an elderly White neighbor says. (Note: We also seek an investigation of police conduct around this issue and a report to the community as to whether Rebecca Whitby was called "nigger" by police who have yet to be punished by the non-minority City of Cleveland safety director and chief of police).

-The request for support for the dismissal of the erroneous guilty verdict of resisting arrest leveled against journalist Kathy Wray Coleman via prosecutorial misconduct and arbitrary behavior by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough in retaliation for her community emails and articles in the Call and Post Newspaper and elsewhere, and her community activism. (Note: The illegal harassment by Keough and her Illegal attempts to sentence Coleman for allegedly resisting arrest when illegally arrested In 2008 come without even a complaint or testimony as required under the Sixth Amendment from sole White male arresting sheriff's deputy Gerald Pace. Coleman says that she has been repeatedly harassed and has been threatened and illegally arrested and jailed since 2008 with the help of certain Black leaders that took money and prestige over fair play and compliance with state and federal law around the malicious prosecution undertaken by the City of Cleveland at the hands of Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi, Keough's friend and attorney of record, as well as a former Cleveland Municipal Court judge himself).

-The request that assignments of criminal and all other cases to Cleveland Municipal Court judges be by random draw as required by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment rather than personal selection of cases to judges like Judge Keough, often times for arbitrary purposes.

-The assignment of a licensed mental health professional instead of Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, or any other judge, over the Cleveland Municipal Court Psychiatric Clinic per state law and an investigation of the number of people erroneously referred to the clinic for financial, political and harassment purposes. (Note: Cleveland judges shall stop the practice of diagnosing Blacks and others in criminal cases and otherwise without a mental health license or otherwise)

- The reorganizing of the City of Cleveland's top level law enforcement leadership team to reflect decision making activity that does not disenfranchise Blacks and women and that addresses a diversified model of leadership in the predominantly Black major metropolitan city where there are no Blacks or women as law director, safety director, chief of police, EMS commissioner, or chief prosecutor.

-An immediate investigation as to the release from custody in 2008 of serial killing suspect Anthony Sowell in spite of a credible and since prosecuted complaint by Gladys Wade, who said she was subjected to an attempted rape by Sowell in 2008 but got away. Six of the 11 murdered women of Imperial Avenue were murdered after Sowell's release from custody in 2008. (Note: Sowell is now in custody and awaiting trial on numerous counts of murder, kidnapping and rape, among other charges).

-The necessity for a fair trial relative to the Joaquin Hicks case and other cases impacting young Black men, women and others prosecuted by the State of Ohio in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas and sentenced to prison in violation of their constitutional and statutory right to a fair trial before a fair and neutral trier of law, i. e., the judge. (Note: Jurors allegedly deliberated in the Hick's criminal case with the assistance of cell phones, rendering the trial proceedings unjust and unconstitutional).

-An investigation as to whether innocent Black male prisoners have been illegally sentenced to life in prison relative to the 1993 Lucasville Riots.


The Imperial Women Coalition,

By Kathy Wray Coleman and Judy Martin ( 216-932-3114 or 216-990-0679)