Republican Ohio 1st District Court of Appeals Judge Pat Fischer (left) defeats Democratic Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell for an open seat on the Ohio Supreme Court in a close race determined some two weeks after the Nov. 8 general election. O'Donnell came under fire from the Black community for bragging about acquitting a White Cleveland cop that gunned down two unarmed Blacks in November 2012 via a bench trial in May 2015 . Black members of Cleveland City Council, led by Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, and community activists rallied against O'Donnell, who lost the Cleveland Plain Dealer Newspaper endorsement to Fischer
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| Outgoing Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, who lost reelection this year in the Democratic primary to Michael O'Malley, who had no opponent in the general election and takes office in January 2017. |
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Democratic Cleveland Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell, who led successful efforts to oust Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty from office this year and joined other Black elected officials and community activists in denying Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell an endorsement for his failed bid for an open seat on the Ohio Supreme Court
By Editor-in-Chief Kathy Wray Coleman, a-24-year journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio for 17 years, and who interviewed now President Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS. (Note: A former biology teacher and longtime Cleveland activist, Coleman is the most read reporter in Ohio on Google Plus with some 3.2 million views).
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, who in 2015 acquitted a since fired White Cleveland cop of gunning down two unarmed Blacks, and who, according to public records, has stolen a wealth of homes from county residents for JPMorgan Chase Bank and others via illegal foreclosures, has conceded the Ohio Supreme Court race to state appellate court judge Pat Fischer. (Editor's note: Public records reveal that those that complained of the housing theft by O'Donnell and others were maliciously prosecuted by some Democratic municipal court judges of Cuyahoga County and outgoing county Democratic prosecutor Tim McGinty where some of the stolen homes were sold for cheap via sheriff's sales to the judges friends, other politicians, media affiliates, and some Black leaders and elected officials, among others. Some Republican judges, from the Supreme Court on down, and visiting judges, both Republicans and Democrats alike, condoned the theft of homes, data reveal, and they too have sometimes retaliated against county residents that have complained, data also show).
A Republican and a 1st District appellate court judge out of Cincinnati, Fischer was beating O'Donnell, a Democrat who lost a bid to the state's high court in 2014 to Republican Judi French, by some 24, 000 votes as to the unofficial Nov. 8 election day count.
But some 260,000 provisional and absentee votes had not yet been counted.
Nearly two weeks after the November general election the remaining ballots have since been counted with O'Donnell losing by .25 percent of the 4 million votes casts, an outcome that does not mandate a recount under state law.
O'Donnell's loss is a lesson taught, no doubt, as he bragged earlier this year of acquitting Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo of manslaughter charges in a bench trial in 2015, though Brelo, who was later fired, gunned down unarmed Black Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell with 49 bullets.
Brelo was the lone Cleveland officer charged that did the shooting where 12 others, none of them Black, were spared criminal charges per lobbying by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, whom voters, led by the Black community with its 70 percent rejection, ousted him this year in the Democratic primary and chose Michael O'Malley, who had no general election opponent and takes office in January 2017.
Russell and Williams were killed the night of Nov 29, 2012 with the 13 cops , including Brelo, slinging 137 bullets into the 1979 Malibu Classic Russell was driving and following a high speed car chase from downtown Cleveland to neighboring East Cleveland.
Brelo jumped on the hood of Russell's car and fired the 49 bullets into the front windshield, both Russell and Williams dying on the spot, the county medical examiner ruled.
An excessive force and wrongful death lawsuit was settled by the city of Cleveland for $3 million to be split between the Russell and Williams families.
Racial unrest continues to mount relative to the Cleveland police murders of Blacks, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Kenneth Smith, Tanisha Anderson and Brandon Jones, all killed by police in the last five years.
Local community activists and area Black leaders, including the eight Blacks on Cleveland City Council, were unnerved by O'Donnell's arrogance when he bragged to the media of his Brelo acquittal..
Led by east side Ward 9 Councilman Kevin Conwell those Black council persons refused to endorse him, and so did community activists.
Conwell mailed letters to his roughly 25,000 constituents urging them to vote McGinty , who is White and pro-cop, out of office this year, and subsequently sent a letter asking that they also deny O'Donnell a chance at the open seat on the Ohio Supreme Court. He was successful with both endeavors.
O'Donnell's controversial acquittal of Brelo set off a firestorm of controversy, some 61 people arrested the day of the controversial acquittal, a bench trial decision that sparked immediate protests. And it costs O'Donnell the election.
O'Donnell, of Lakewood, and who is White, also lost the endorsement of the Plain Dealer, his hometown newspaper, to Fischer.
Cuyahoga County, a 29 percent Black Democratic stronghold that includes the largely Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland, is the largest of Ohio's counties with some 1.26 million people. The closest to that is Franklin county with some 1.25 million people, followed by Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, with a 800,000 people population.
O'Donnell won Cuyahoga County over Fisher 229, 800 votes to Fischer's 173, 860, or 57 percent to 43 percent, poor results given that its O'Donnell's county, and a Democratic stronghold.
And while O'Donnell won over Fischer in Franklin County, which includes Columbus, Fischer beat him 54 percent to 46 percent on Fischer's home turf of Hamilton County.
Fisher did better collectively in the remaining 85 counties combined, all of which have populations of less that 600,00. And of 79 of those 85 counties have populations of less than 250,000.
It didn't help the Democrat O'Donnell that Republicans were in rare form on election day, giving President-elect Donald Trump a win in the state of Ohio over Hillary Clinton by 6 percent.
For now the state's high court still lacks diversity from a partisan standpoint and from a racial standpoint.
The seven-member all White Ohio Supreme Court has only one Democrat, Justice William O'Neil.
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