State Sen. Nina Turner, Cleveland Councilman Terrell Pruitt, Ward 1 Endorse Carr For Cleveland Judge Over McLaughlin-Murray
Ohio State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25)
Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Pinkey Carr
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin-Murray
From the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com and www.determinerweekly.com)
Led by State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt, Ward 1 executive committee members of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party voted unanimously yesterday to endorse Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Pinkey Carr in this year's election for the seat left open on the Cleveland Municipal Court by Kathleen Ann Keough, who came under fire for harassing Blacks, women and journalists, and taking police cases to target Black defendants and community activists for Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi and area politicians.
The seat is currently held by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin-Murray, who attended the meeting but was rejected by Ward 1 operatives as unqualified for the seat to which she was appointed last month by former Gov. Ted Strickland to complete the unexpired term left by Keough's election to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in Nov. Strickland was defeated by Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich
In order to hold on to the seat McLaughlin-Murray must win the election
“We are pleased that Sen. Turner, Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt and Ward 1 did not endorse McLaughlin-Murray because she is, in our opinion, a danger to the administration of justice and an embarrassment to the bench due to her complete disregard of the law and her harassment of Blacks and women, ” said Kathy Wray Coleman, a leader of the Imperial Women. “It is time now for the Black community and others to vote corrupt judges off the bench, particularly when Blacks are being subjected to malicious prosecutions by Triozzi and corrupt White judges of the muncipal court in a predominatly Black major metropoitan city such as Cleveland."
Coleman said that McLaughlin-Murray retaliated against Blacks in response to her opposition by Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson, Turner, Pruitt and Ward 1, issuing docket entries that do not tell what hearing she is holding so that she can trick them and jail them, and giving Blacks and women only two working days notice of hearing, when mail notice from Cleveland Municipal Clerk of Court Earle B. Turner takes longer than that. She is also revoking bonds and issuing warrants against Blacks and women without the bond forfeiture hearing required to be scheduled before a neutral magistrate by Turner.
McLaughlin-Murray sent letters to Ward 1 residents prior to yesterday's vote against her, which was 8 to-0 with one person voting no endorsement for neither Carr nor the judge. In that letter she said, among other comments, that it is her turn to be judge because she has stepped aside and refrained from running previously to help others win, a disposition that obviously turned off executive committee members of Ward 1.
"That tells you that she is seemingly unfit," said Coleman. "Judge ships should not be for sale based upon whether a person agreed not to run previously with a promise to be endorsed later and that is partly why the FBI is investigating Democratic office holders and others in Cuyahoga County," said Coleman. "We call for McLaughlin-Murray's immediate resignation and an investigation by the FBI of her documented malfeasance and harassment of Blacks and women in the time since Jan. of this year that this woman has been on the bench."
Coleman added that the Imperial Women will be watching to see if Cleveland Mayor Jackson, the Black press, and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes endorse an unfair White judge like McLaughlin-Murray while refusing to endorse qualified Black women in this year's upcoming judicial elections as they did relative to the elections for judges held last year where all three Black women that sought judge ships lost.
"When Black leaders are part of the malfeasance and are the one's endorsing and cutting deals and corrupt non-Black judges like Judges Keough and McLaughlin- Murray violate the law and harass the Black community and Black journalists who will not be quiet as they tell them to, we know that the community is in trouble," said Coleman. "But selling out for money, political prestige and power is common place to some of them, and I have the data as a 16 year journalist to prove it if necessary."
With its staunch middle class base, the predominantly Black Ward 1 has the largest voting sector of all of Cleveland's 19 wards. It has 19 executive committee members of the county Democratic Party, some of whom obviously did not show for yesterday's endorsement session. Cleveland Ward leaders and the executive committee of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party will meet March 5 to endorse judges for the May primary election.
Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Pinkey Carr
Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin-MurrayFrom the Metro Desk of the DeterminerWeekly.Com and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com and www.determinerweekly.com)
Led by State Sen. Nina Turner (D-25) and Cleveland Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt, Ward 1 executive committee members of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party voted unanimously yesterday to endorse Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Pinkey Carr in this year's election for the seat left open on the Cleveland Municipal Court by Kathleen Ann Keough, who came under fire for harassing Blacks, women and journalists, and taking police cases to target Black defendants and community activists for Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi and area politicians.
The seat is currently held by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin-Murray, who attended the meeting but was rejected by Ward 1 operatives as unqualified for the seat to which she was appointed last month by former Gov. Ted Strickland to complete the unexpired term left by Keough's election to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals in Nov. Strickland was defeated by Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich
In order to hold on to the seat McLaughlin-Murray must win the election
“We are pleased that Sen. Turner, Ward 1 Councilman Terrell Pruitt and Ward 1 did not endorse McLaughlin-Murray because she is, in our opinion, a danger to the administration of justice and an embarrassment to the bench due to her complete disregard of the law and her harassment of Blacks and women, ” said Kathy Wray Coleman, a leader of the Imperial Women. “It is time now for the Black community and others to vote corrupt judges off the bench, particularly when Blacks are being subjected to malicious prosecutions by Triozzi and corrupt White judges of the muncipal court in a predominatly Black major metropoitan city such as Cleveland."
Coleman said that McLaughlin-Murray retaliated against Blacks in response to her opposition by Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson, Turner, Pruitt and Ward 1, issuing docket entries that do not tell what hearing she is holding so that she can trick them and jail them, and giving Blacks and women only two working days notice of hearing, when mail notice from Cleveland Municipal Clerk of Court Earle B. Turner takes longer than that. She is also revoking bonds and issuing warrants against Blacks and women without the bond forfeiture hearing required to be scheduled before a neutral magistrate by Turner.
McLaughlin-Murray sent letters to Ward 1 residents prior to yesterday's vote against her, which was 8 to-0 with one person voting no endorsement for neither Carr nor the judge. In that letter she said, among other comments, that it is her turn to be judge because she has stepped aside and refrained from running previously to help others win, a disposition that obviously turned off executive committee members of Ward 1.
"That tells you that she is seemingly unfit," said Coleman. "Judge ships should not be for sale based upon whether a person agreed not to run previously with a promise to be endorsed later and that is partly why the FBI is investigating Democratic office holders and others in Cuyahoga County," said Coleman. "We call for McLaughlin-Murray's immediate resignation and an investigation by the FBI of her documented malfeasance and harassment of Blacks and women in the time since Jan. of this year that this woman has been on the bench."
Coleman added that the Imperial Women will be watching to see if Cleveland Mayor Jackson, the Black press, and Cleveland NAACP President George Forbes endorse an unfair White judge like McLaughlin-Murray while refusing to endorse qualified Black women in this year's upcoming judicial elections as they did relative to the elections for judges held last year where all three Black women that sought judge ships lost.
"When Black leaders are part of the malfeasance and are the one's endorsing and cutting deals and corrupt non-Black judges like Judges Keough and McLaughlin- Murray violate the law and harass the Black community and Black journalists who will not be quiet as they tell them to, we know that the community is in trouble," said Coleman. "But selling out for money, political prestige and power is common place to some of them, and I have the data as a 16 year journalist to prove it if necessary."
With its staunch middle class base, the predominantly Black Ward 1 has the largest voting sector of all of Cleveland's 19 wards. It has 19 executive committee members of the county Democratic Party, some of whom obviously did not show for yesterday's endorsement session. Cleveland Ward leaders and the executive committee of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party will meet March 5 to endorse judges for the May primary election.
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