Mike DeWine refuses to issue Ohio Attorney General opinion on whether Cleveland Councilman Jeff Johnson can run for mayor due to an expunged felony conviction, and Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh will act as special prosecutor in place of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley for a board of elections hearing on the matter, one that sources say is frivolous, and a witch hunt against the Black councilman....Prosecutor Walsh is a no-nonsence prosecutor with notable wins, including a conviction this year of former Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee on corruption-related charges and another win when a judge, in 2016, denied a a bid for a new trial by former Akron police captain and murderer Douglas Prade, who killed ex-wife Dr. Margo Prade in 1997....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of www.clevelandurbannews.com and www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leaders
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| Cleveland Ward 10 councilman and mayoral candidate Jeff Johnson |
Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley (wearing grey suit) and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (wearing dark blue suit)
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a former U.S. senator and a likely gubernatorial candidate for the 2018 race for Ohio governor, has refused to honor request by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley for an AG opinion on whether Cleveland Ward 10 Councilman Jeff Johnson is eligible to run for mayor because of a board of elections complaint that claims his 1998 felony extortion conviction that was expunged in 2008 by a common pleas judge lacks merit.
The county board of elections complaint was filed by Ed Davila, who wants Johnson, who is Black, out of the race for mayor.
In short, DeWine called O'Malley's request for an AG opinion frivolous, given that state law permits common pleas judges to expunge certain state and federal convictions, including felony convictions for extortion, for which Johnson was convicted of some two decades ago, his record subsequently wiped clean by a common pleas judge in Cuyahoga County.
A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that O'Malley, who is White, is simply on a witch hunt because Johnson is among nearly a dozen potential mayoral candidates and the only one to take out petitions to date, all of them seeking to unseat incumbent three-term Black mayor Frank Jackson, who is also a Democrat like O'Malley and Johnson.
Also of importance is the zeal by White folks to keep Black men from getting second chances in life because of felony convictions, no matter the extent of the crime or crimes or how long ago they were committed, Johnson supporters and others have said.
The board of elections complaint says in part that the board of elections should usurp state law and brand extortion as bribery, a felony conviction not eligible to be expunged under state law in Ohio.
And this is though the board of elections has no such authority.
For the complainant to win in the least, legal research suggests, would require the General Assembly to change the state law on what felonies can and cannot be expunged, or for a judge to rule that the state law at issue is unconstitutional, and even that may not pass constitutional muster on any appeal, and it would be after the fact and not applicable relative to Johnson.
Laws are not always clear on their faces and judges must interpret such as is the claim against Johnson with the board of elections, one that alleges bribery and extortion are one in the same and if state law precludes a felony record for bribery from being expunged, it, in essence, applies to extortion.
The county board of elections complaint was filed by Ed Davila, who wants Johnson, who is Black, out of the race for mayor.
In short, DeWine called O'Malley's request for an AG opinion frivolous, given that state law permits common pleas judges to expunge certain state and federal convictions, including felony convictions for extortion, for which Johnson was convicted of some two decades ago, his record subsequently wiped clean by a common pleas judge in Cuyahoga County.
A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that O'Malley, who is White, is simply on a witch hunt because Johnson is among nearly a dozen potential mayoral candidates and the only one to take out petitions to date, all of them seeking to unseat incumbent three-term Black mayor Frank Jackson, who is also a Democrat like O'Malley and Johnson.
Also of importance is the zeal by White folks to keep Black men from getting second chances in life because of felony convictions, no matter the extent of the crime or crimes or how long ago they were committed, Johnson supporters and others have said.
The board of elections complaint says in part that the board of elections should usurp state law and brand extortion as bribery, a felony conviction not eligible to be expunged under state law in Ohio.
And this is though the board of elections has no such authority.
For the complainant to win in the least, legal research suggests, would require the General Assembly to change the state law on what felonies can and cannot be expunged, or for a judge to rule that the state law at issue is unconstitutional, and even that may not pass constitutional muster on any appeal, and it would be after the fact and not applicable relative to Johnson.
Laws are not always clear on their faces and judges must interpret such as is the claim against Johnson with the board of elections, one that alleges bribery and extortion are one in the same and if state law precludes a felony record for bribery from being expunged, it, in essence, applies to extortion.
The state law, however, does not say that extortion convictions, whether federal or state convictions, cannot be expunged.
"It could come down to whether it is the strict definition of the law, as Jeff Johnson wants it to be, or the language of the law" a prominent Cleveland defense attorney told under condition of anonymity.
"The judge that made the determination in Johnson's case to expunge his felony conviction in 2008 apparently went with the strict definition concept," the source said. " And if the prosecutor's office failed to raise the issue before the judge it could very well be a dead issue in the Johnson matter."
Also at issue is the failure by the prosecutor to object to Johnson's felony getting expunged at the trial court level by the common pleas judge that expunged it, or appealing the ruling or court order, appeals courts usually saying that on appeal issues typically have to be raised at the trial court level in order to be heard .
A former Cleveland councilman and Parma safety director who ousted fellow Democrat Tim McGinty in the Democratic primary last year with staunch help from Black voters in Cuyahoga County, a 29 percent Black county that includes the city of Cleveland, has now secured an agreement by neighboring Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh to act in his place for a hearing on Davila's complaint.
That hearing was set to go forward on May 15 but has now been delayed for Walsh and her legal team to do research.
Walsh will replace the role of O'Malley and will act as a special prosecutor in the matter, O'Malley now claiming he has a conflict of interest, whatever that may be.
A former Akron assistant city prosecutor, Walsh is also a Democrat, and a no-nonsense prosecutor who last year was elected to a historical fifth term.
First elected in 2000, Walsh is a powerful woman, and has a long list of notable wins during her four terms as Summit County prosecutor, including a conviction this year of former Summit County Councilwoman Tamela Lee, who is Black, on seven counts of corruption related charge, and the denial last year by a Summit County common pleas judge of a bid by Akron police captain Douglas Prade, who is also Black, for a new trial in the 1997 slaying of his Black ex-wife, Dr Margo Prade.
A Glenville councilman who was head of the Black student union and homecoming king in his college days at Kent State University, Johnson was convicted in late 1998 by a federal jury of Hobbs Act extortion for reportedly receiving some $17,000 in campaign contributions from Arab-American grocers.
But the federal indictment did not charge Johnson with bribery. He was charged, in fact, with four counts of extortion and two counts of wire fraud.
The wire fraud counts were dismissed before trial and Johnson, who alleged entrapment to no avail, was convicted on three of the four extortion counts.
He served nine months of a 15-month federal prison sentence.
When the federal indictment came down Johnson, also a former city councilman, was a state senator in ambitious pursuit of the congressional seat vacated by the retirement of longtime 11th congressional district congressman Louis Stokes, a seat that went to the late Stephanie Tubbs- Jones of Cleveland, who, like Stokes, was Black.
Then the co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's first and failed Democratic primary bid for president against former president Barack Obama, Tubbs-Jones died of a brain aneurysm in 2008, just weeks before Obama accepted the Democratic nomination president. She was succeeded in congress by current congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Black Warrensville Heights Democrat whose largely Black congressional district includes parts of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs, and a pocket of Akron and staggering parts of Summit County suburbs.
The Ohio Supreme Court restored Johnson's law license in 2009 and in 2010 he was again elected to city council, though the board of elections complaint says the councilman should have never been able to re- assume his city council seat due to the extortion conviction, another allegation that a a source said is also likely frivolous.
Johnson was a rising star in the Democratic Party prior to his legal troubles.
But he acknowledges his mistakes and says he is running for mayor of Cleveland because he is the best candidate to resurrect inner city neighborhoods, and to improve the lives of Clevelanders in a major American city steeped in poverty and plagued with a public school system that struggles to stay above water.
Under state law the mayor of Cleveland has control of the city's public schools and appoints the Cleveland Board of Education.
The Cleveland mayoral seat and all seats on the 17-member city council are up for grabs this year, all seats of which carry four-year terms.
Other mayoral wannabe's include Councilman Zack Reed, and former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer, who, like Jackson, are Black.
Jackson, on Wednesday, announced a $65 million plan to redevelop neighborhoods and improve housing, and to replenish downturn Cleveland.
The city's non-partisan primary for city council and the race for mayor are September 12 with a June 29 deadline for filing legitimate petitions to get on the ballot.
, Ohio's most read digital Black newspapers with some 4 million readers on Google Plus alone. And the ClevelandUrbanNews.Com website stats reveal some 26 million hits since 2012. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former 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.
