Cliff Pinkney named first Black Cuyahoga County sheriff by County Executive Armond Budish, Budish also named Nailah Byrd as the first Black county clerk of courts, Pinkney's predecessors, namely former county sheriffs Bova, Reid and McFaul, stole residents' homes, data show, via illegal foreclosures, and for big mortgage companies and banks like JPMorgan Chase Bank, and with the help of common pleas judges like John O'Donnell and Carolyn Friedland

New Cuyahoga County Sheriff Clifford Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff,
and the only Black sheriff  of 88 counties in Ohio

Cuyahoga County Clerk of Courts Nailah Byrd, Cuyahoga County's
first Black clerk of courts

Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, a former state lawmaker and former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives who, as the new county executive, recently named Cuyahoga County's first Black sheriff and first Black clerk of courts in selecting Clifford Pinkney and Nailah Byrd respectively for the posts

By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News.Com, and the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and newspaper blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473.  Coleman is a community activist, political journalist and 21-year investigative reporter who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com) 

CLEVELAND, Ohio- New Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, in office for just under a month, has named deputy chief Clifford Pinkney as the new county sheriff, a historical action as Pinkney is the county's first Black sheriff ever. The distinction follows the appointment by Budish earlier this month of former county inspector general Nailah Byrd as the county's first Black clerk of courts. (Editor's note: The clerk of courts collects monies coming into the court and keeps records of the common pleas and domestic courts, and the Eighth District Court of Appeals).

A Beachwood Democrat, Budish is a former Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and the first Jewish Speaker of the Ohio House.

"With over nearly 25 years in the sheriff's department Cliff Pinkney has demonstrated his effectiveness, his integrity, and his commitment to get the job done," said Budish at a press conference with Pinkney and others on Friday to announce his selection of the county's new sheriff.

The appointment of Pinkney, which awaits all-but-ensured confirmation by county council, came following a commitment to diversity in county employees by Budish while on the campaign trail last year, and demands by community activists for more diversity in the rank and file of Cuyahoga County government.(Editor's note: As to the meeting with Budish and community activists last year while Budish was on the campaign trail CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL STORY AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACKDIGITAL NEWS).

Cuyahoga County, a 29 percent Black county that is heavily Democratic and includes the largely Black city of Cleveland, and 59 total municipalities, townships or villages, is the largest of 88 counties statewide, none of the other 87 counties with a Black sheriff, a position in most other counties, aside from neighboring Summit County for sure, that is not an appointed post and is determined at the polls by county voters through an election.

Data show that the general division common pleas court, with its 34 predominantly White judges, and under the leadership of Administrative and Presiding Judge John Russo,  is corrupt, from falsification of records data, to the judges, according to a study commissioned by the Cleveland NAACP, giving harsher sentences to Blacks, not to mention that the judges are also accused of handpicking grand jury foremen in exchange for favors, sources say. (Editor's note: State law currently provides for either the grand jury or the common pleas judges to choose the grand jury foreman and permits the judges to do so by appointing a person not already on the grand jury panel. Community activists have called on the state legislature to amend the law so that only the grand jury itself can choose its foreman).

Pinkney replaces ousted former sheriff Frank Bova, a former Warrensville Heights police chief under former Warrensville Heights mayor Marcia L. Fudge, now the congresswoman of Ohio's largely Black 11th congressional district.

Bova was handed an artificial post with the county until he retires, sources said Friday. 

Andrea Rocco, who was the clerk of courts before Byrd, was disliked by County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, a control freak, and by some of the judges, sources say, who want to control the common pleas court and its resources, sometimes in a corrupt manner. This includes, say sources, allegedly stealing monies from the court coffers, and fixing cases and case dockets, including for banks and mortgage companies like JPMorgan Chase Bank.

Byrd will be paid $140,000 annually.

Pinkney's salary has not been announced. Both he and Byrd await approval for their new assignments by the county council. Pinkney will oversee more than 1,100 employees, Budish said. 

Pinkney, 52, is a 24-year veteran of the county sheriff's office where he worked with the narcotics bureau and the FBI on drug and gang-related cases. He was promoted to deputy chief in 2013. He is also leading the investigation into the police shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, an unprecedented shooting that occurred late last year and has generated ongoing community protests.  The assignment in the Rice case came because Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson does not want Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine near the controversial case. 

Following an extensive investigation into the shooting death in 2012 of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell by 13 non- Black Cleveland cops slinging 137 bullets,  DeWine found systemic problems in the city's largely White police department but tried to also use the report to arbitrarily exonerate the 13 cops at issue, only one getting indicted, Michael Brelo, on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. 

Brelo has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial before Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, a crook, data show, who stole foreclosed homes for banks and mortgage companies like JPMorgan Chase Bank, along with a host of other judges like Carolyn Friedland, and in cooperation with the office of the county sheriff, under Bova, ousted former sheriff Bob Reid, and former elected sheriff and convicted criminal Gerald McFaul.

Longtime former sheriff McFaul was ousted from office in 2009 due to his criminal endeavors, including harassing employees for campaign donations. (Editor's note: McFaul, Reid and Bova stole homes from county residents, data show, by having their appraisers violate state law to deflate the home values of foreclosed homes for sheriff sales, and in effect denying former homeowners monies sometimes due back after the sale. State law gives buyers a third off of foreclosed home at sheriff's sales, but deflating the home values for an additional discount is illegal. Other illegalities include Judge O'Donnell presiding over foreclosure cases with no plaintiff , and thus no jurisdiction, to steal the homes for Chase Bank,  and others, and with support from the Cleveland NAACP, data show.CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE OF JUDGE JOHN O'DONNELL'S CORRUPTION AND DOCUMENTED THEFT OF HOMES AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM

The U.S. Department of Justice, like DeWine, also found systemic problems in the Cleveland Police Department. But DeWine, a Republican and former U.S. senator, blames most of his findings on the Jackson administration, while the DOJ, led by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, America's first Black attorney general, found the city and police culpable, from a pattern of excessive force, mainly against the Black community,  to harassment of the mentally ill. 

Divorced with twin sons, Byrd, 43, is a native of New York, and was a district attorney there. She subsequently joined the Cleveland based law firm of Squires, Sanders and Demsey, and then the district attorney's office for the northern district of Ohio in 2010. She is  the daughter of former Cleveland Metropolitan School District CEO Barbara Byrd Bennett and was formerly the county inspector general, whatever that means since her role in part was to investigate county employees, including her boss, the county executive.

Before Budish, who beat Republican County Councilman Jack Schron to win the seat in November, Ed FitzGerald held the county executive job.

The county's first county executive under the voter adopted revised county governance structure that took effect in 2011, FitzGerald was elected in 2010 and opted not to seek reelection. He was trounced last year in an unsuccessful bid to unseat popular Gov. John Kasich, who is contemplating a run for president in 2016. 

FitzGerald had appointed Rocco as clerk of courts, and Bova as sheriff, who replaced ousted Reid as sheriff, whom FitzGerald fired in January of 2013 , both Rocco and Bova now out of their high-powered positions per Budish, who is expected to make more administrative changes in coming months, sources said.

Pinkney and Byrd must be approved for hire, or promotion by Cuyahoga County Council as required by the county charter, which voters changed in 2009, a reformation of the county governance structure that swapped a three member board of commissioners and other elected positions of the sheriff, recorder, auditor,  clerk of courts, treasurer and coroner (medical examiner) for an elected county executive and an elected 11-member county council.

Together the county executive, upon recommendation, and the county council, appoint all of the previously elected county offices, other than the county prosecutor, and the judges, including the sheriff, and the clerk of courts.(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)