Cleveland activists picket the Justice Center for justice for activist and investigative journalist Kathy Wray Coleman after Judge Nancy Fuerst attempts to hold an illegal trial against Coleman, who is falsely accused of assaulting but not touching four White cops....Fuerst attempted a trial without a written and journalized court order for a trial, Coleman's attorney, Brian McGraw, subsequently filing a motion saying Fuerst knows full well that the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that orders by judges for trial and otherwise must be in writing and journalized on the case docket..... Led by Alfred Porter Jr. of Black on Black Crime Inc., activists also rallied against erroneous police killings of Black people, excessive bonds, malicious prosecutions and the overcrowding of the Cuyahoga County jail.... Speakers included Coleman, Gwendolyn Pitts, Cheryl Lessin, Brenda Adrine, Bill Swain, former Cleveland school board vice president Gerald C. Henley, Marva and David Patterson of the Carl Stokes Brigade, and Alicia Kirkman, whose son was erroneously killed by Cleveland police...The four cops at issue have refused to testify, a reason, in part, for Fuerst's illegal effort to hold trial without a written and journalized court order, their absence from a legally issued order for trial of which mandates dismissal of the case against Coleman, who is Black.....By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst (left) and Cleveland activist and journalist Kathy Wray Coleman |
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Led by Black on Black Crime Inc. President Alfred Porter Jr., community activists picketed the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in downtown Cleveland Monday afternoon in support of activist and investigative journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who is accused of assaulting but not touching four University Heights police officers at her University Heights home three years ago.
It was the second picket in two weeks, activists, led by Art McKoy, Khalid Samad, and Porter, also picketing the Justice Center in support of Coleman on Aug 7.
Activists also called for police killings of unarmed Blacks and malicious prosecutions to cease, and they rallied against grand jury indictment malfeasance, and excessive bonds, all of which disproportionately impact the Black community..
They demanded that county officials do something about the overcrowding in the county jail, and they took on Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst for attempting to hold a trial against Coleman without issuing a written and journalised order for trial on Aug, 13.
Specifically, the Ohio Supreme Court has said that judges speak through their journal entries, case law that even novel attorneys, more less seasoned judges like Judge Fuerst, are familiar with. .
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| Attorney Brian McGraw |
Rally speakers included Cheryl Lessin, Brenda Adrine and Bill Swain of Refusefacism.org, Gwendolyn Pitts, former Cleveland school board vice president Gerald C. Henley, Marva and David Patterson of the Carl Stokes Brigade, and Alicia Kirkman, whose son was erroneously killed by Cleveland police.
"They are targeting Kathy because she will not shut up about injustice," said Cheryl Lessin, 72, a sentiment shared by Brenda Adrine, who said the whole legal system is a sham and that "fascism must stop."
Marva Patterson said there is no evidence that Coleman almost touched the cops and that the prosecution, led by County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, is malicious at best.
Coleman, who last week buried her father, former longtime Cleveland schools assistant superintendent Dr. James M. Coleman, also spoke and urged protesters to continue their plight and said jail correction officers are overworked and underpaid, some women correction officers of whom are required to supervise jail pods of some 51 inmates by themselves.
Coleman said that Judge Fuerst, who is White and a former chief judge, is unfair and is treating her differently than her White counterparts, partly because prosecutors, and police, who are now refusing to testify, are targeting her for her activism and journalism, and because she is Black and female and led the 2018 women's march in Cleveland.
Fuerst, say activists, wanted to proceed to trial without journalizing an order for trial, in part because police will not testify and had the judge journalized a trial on the docket as required by case law and other authorities, their absence at trial, and in spite of a subpoena from the prosecution, would have required dismissal of the case against Coleman.
The judge, said activists, also wanted to mislead the media by not posting a trial on the case docket.
Coleman has been offered a misdemeanor with no jail time, and says she is being harassed by Fuerst, prosecutors, and others in an attempt to get her to accept the plea deal.
The trial was originally scheduled for Aug. 7 but when Coleman and her attorney appeared for trial, Assistant County Prosecutor Brandon Piteo told the judge the cops at issue were on vacation and unable to testify at trial.
Activists have questioned why McGraw did not move for dismissal of the case on Aug. 7 when the cops failed to appear for trial.
Assistant Prosecutor Piteo later filed a motion saying the cops wanted to testify via skype by computer because they had fled the state, a motion that Coleman's attorney said he intended to oppose .
Coleman said that Judge Fuerst should recuse herself from hearing the case due to ongoing and documented bias and prejudice.
Judge Fuerst attempted to proceed to trial in contempt of an Aug. 6, 2018 order issued by the 8th District Court of Appeals that put the trial on hold until trial court issues raised by Coleman on appeal are addressed by the Ohio Supreme Court, if the seven-member all White and all Republican high court of Ohio agrees to hear the issues at hand.
Coleman, who has organized pickets around Cleveland police killings of unarmed Black people and violence against women and has exposed police, prosecutorial and judicial malfeasance as well as foreclosure theft by county officials, judges like Judge John O'Donnell, JPMorgan Chase Bank attorneys, and a host of others, called the case frivolous, racist, and sexist, and a blatant violation of free speech.
A former Cleveland schools biology teacher for 14 years and former 17-year Call and Post Newspaper reporter who led the Cleveland women's march earlier this year and who now edits Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog, and who leads the activist group Imperial Women Coalition, Coleman is charged with assaulting but not touching four White University Heights cops who came to her home in May of 2015 slinging guns and rifles and allegedly calling her nigger, and without a warrant or 9-1-1 call.
Coleman is best known for her journalism and for organizing and leading rallies as to the 137 shots police killings of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell and other Cleveland police killings of unarmed Blacks, the murders of 11 Black women on Imperial Avenue by serial killer Anthony Sowell, the Seymour Avenue Ariel Castro victims, serial killer Michael Madison victims in East Cleveland, and the Cleveland East 93rd Street serial murders.
Police have no dash cam, body cam or video of the alleged incident and a witness at the scene has filed an affidavit with Fuerst saying the police are lying, one cop in particular, Dale Orians, lying to the grand jury and testifying for three other fellow University Heights cops, case records reveal.
A video introduced during discovery has allegedly been tampered with by police and prosecutors and does not show what happened the day of the incident in question.
University Heights is a Cleveland suburb known for police harassment of Black people, foreclosure theft, and public corruption, its former Democratic mayor, Susan Infeld, ousted by voters in 2017.
According to the grand jury testimony of cop Orians, he got a cell phone call and then lobbied some seven White cops to strap up with guns and rifles. They then went to Coleman's home to get her, Coleman getting away to safety and illegally indicted a year later per the insistence of since ousted county prosecutor Tim McGinty, who, according to Coleman's former attorney, Scott Hurley, colluded with Clerk of Courts Nailah Byrd and fixed the indictment from two cops to four cops allegedly assaulted but not touched, all without a court order or a new grand jury indictment.
McGinty lost reelection in 2016 to current county prosecutor Michael O'Malley, a former Parma safety director whom activists say is pro- cop in general, and conveniently pro- Black when he needs the Black vote
Public records reveal that Coleman's constitutional right to a speedy trial, which she has not waived, is being violated by Judge Fuerst, among a host of other issues relative to the tortured case.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and 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.
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