Former Akron police captain Douglas Prade, who was convicted of murdering ex-wife Dr. Margo Prade, is back in jail after Ohio Supreme Court refuses to hear his new appeal of his convictions, Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh wins this round, a retired visiting trial court judge will now decide if Prade will get a new trial, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, whom police unions endorsed, handpicked the trial court judge that freed Prade in 2013 and who will determine if a new trial will be held, O'Connor is a Republican accused of handpicking retired judges for cases, some of whom allegedly harass Blacks, women, Democrats, others, and they deny indigent Blacks attorneys with alleged support from Cleveland NAACP attorneys Michael Nelson Sr., James Hardiman

Douglas Prade

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-Chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog,

Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog 

Kathy Wray Coleman is  a community activist and 20 year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

Dr. Margo Prade

AKRON, Ohio-Former Akron police captain Douglas Prade, who was convicted of murdering ex-wife Margo Prade 15 years ago, is back behind bars following a judicial hearing Friday on his freedom and after the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal, 4-3, from a Ninth District Court of Appeals decision that reversed a Summit County trial court ruling that freed him from prison in 2013.

Following the Ninth District decision, which was issued in April, a judge ordered Prade back to jail. But he stayed in jail that time for only a day, given freedom once again pursuant to a stay while the Ohio Supreme Court determined whether it would hear his appeal seeking to overturn his convictions. Now the former cop, who has two daughters with Margo Prade, both of them now grown, is back in jail again around this vacillating legal saga and celebrated tragedy.

Since the Ohio Supreme Court this week decided not to hear Prade's appeal, the second behind his unsuccessful original appeal more than a decade ago, the case now heads back to the trial court that freed him in 2013, a  ruling by retired visiting Summit County Judge Judy Hunter, who also ruled that if the state's high court fails to overturn the murder conviction she would then hold a hearing on Prade's motion for a new trial. The judge alleges that DNA does not link the jealous Prade to the murder of his ex-wife, a popular Akron medical doctor.

Republican Ohio Supreme Court
 Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor

Hunter was handpicked for the case by Republican Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a favorite of police unions that supported her bid in 2010 as the first female chief justice of the state's high court. O'Connor is accused of handpicking retired judges, paying them $500 a day, and sending some of them throughout the state to allegedly fix cases and harass her enemies, mainly Democrats, women and Black people. Some of the visiting judges,  including retired Barberton Municipal Court judge Michael Weigand and retired Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas judge Ronald Suster,  are denying indigent Blacks counsel in municipal courts such as Berea and Bedford.

Alleged pimp and former Judge Harry Jacob
of the Bedford Municipal Court. Jacob
 has been suspended from the bench following a 
Cuyahoga County Grand Jury
 indictment on several felony charges, including 
bribery and theft in office, and a host of 
other charges, including solicitation, and that he flagrantly ran
a prostitution ring out of the court.

The infamous city of Bedford, like Berea, is a suburb of Cleveland and is where a judge there, namely Republican Harry Jacob, has been suspended from the bench after an indictment on a host of felonies and other charges, including that he ran a prostitution ring out of the court. Jacob has  pleaded not guilty to all charges and is out on bond, though the Bedford court, which serves the city of Bedford and 13 other jurisdictions of greater Cleveland, including neighboring Bedford Heights and Oakwood Village, is in disarray. Blacks, who are disproportionately prosecuted there, and women defendants brought before the court, some maliciously prosecuted and denied speedy trials like others, are even more at risk, legal experts have said, and a Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals. 

Cleveland NAACP Attorney James Hardiman,
also a Cleveland area criminal defense attorney

When indigent Blacks complain about the denial of counsel these judges, including corrupt Suster and super corrupt Weindgand, issue

Cleveland NAACP Attorney Michael Nelson Sr., also a Cleveland area criminal defense attorney

illegal warrants, data show, some allegedly bragging to community activists and others that they can do so with support from O'Connor and the Cleveland NAACP and its attorneys, James Hardiman and Michael Nelson Sr.

Prade, say his lawyers, will likely face the retired judge Hunter again within 30 days, on whether he will get a new trial, a denial of which sets the stage for more appeals.  

Akron is a city some 30 miles south of Cleveland and the native home of NBA basketball icon LeBron James.

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, who fought against the high court's order for a stay from prison of Prade, told Cleveland Urban News.Com that Douglas Prade is as guilty as sin. 

Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh

"The information presented by the defense that supposedly proves Prade's innocence is, as stated by the Ninth District Court of Appeals judgment released last month, wholly questionable and meaningless,"  said Walsh at the time the stay was issued.

Douglas Prade, now 68, was convicted in 1998 by a Summit County jury of his peers of murdering Margo Prade, 41 at her death and a well respected doctor slated at the time to marry a local attorney. 

The popular Black doctor was found dead outside of her medical office in her mini-van in November 1997. She was shot six times and had a bite mark on her arm, the coroner said.

 (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)