Voters approve charter amendment that gives appointed Cuyahoga County sheriff in Cleveland more independence from the county executive following 9 inmate deaths, findings by U.S. Marshals of the unconstitutional mistreatment of inmates, and some 12 indictments, including the former jail director, some 6 jail guards, and former jail warden Eric Ivey, Ivey of whom pleaded guilty before crooked Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 As to the one-on-one interview by Coleman with Obama CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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| Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish |
The charter amendment, a compromise to appease county council members who want to return to an elected sheriff, passes as the county jail, which merged with the city jail Cleveland in 2017, is in the national spotlight following nine recent inmate jail deaths in roughly under a year, findings by U.S. Marshals of unconstitutional and illegal mistreatment of inmates, and some 12 county grand jury indictments in the past year, including the former jail director, former jail warden, and some six jail guards.
Appointed rather than elected due to a voter-adopted change in county governance implemented in 2011 that replaced three county commissioners and the county elected offices, with a county executive and 11-member county council, all but the still elected judges and county prosecutor, the sheriff served at the pleasure of the county executive until Tuesday's charter amendment.
Issue 6 requires that the sheriff is appointed per the recommendation of the county executive subject to confirmation by county council, which would also have authority to remove the sheriff for cause by vote of eight of the 11 county council members, a super majority.
The charter amendment essentially strips Budish and any other county executive of authority to demand the firing of the sheriff independent of county council's assessment and approval, and limits his authority in hiring a sheriff.
Issue 6 requires that the sheriff is appointed per the recommendation of the county executive subject to confirmation by county council, which would also have authority to remove the sheriff for cause by vote of eight of the 11 county council members, a super majority.
The charter amendment essentially strips Budish and any other county executive of authority to demand the firing of the sheriff independent of county council's assessment and approval, and limits his authority in hiring a sheriff.
Also now appointed by the county executive rather than elected relative to the change in governance that took effect in 2011 are the county clerk of courts, treasurer, auditor and fiscal officer, all of the positions elected until the change in took effect, a governance change that followed an ongoing county public corruption probe led by the FBI and IRS that took off in 2008 and has seen a former county commissioner and auditor, two former common pleas judges, MetroHealth Hospital administrators and doctors imprisoned.
They are among some 75 Democratic operatives charged with criminal activity, mainly businessmen, some of them avoiding prison with plea deals, and not even a hand full of whom were completely exonerated.
Before the governance structure that ditched the three commissioners was implemented in 2011, a governance structure similar to neighboring Summit County, the Democrats held all of the non-judicial county offices in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold.
Now about a fourth of the 11 county council members, a substitute for the commissioners, are Republican.
They are among some 75 Democratic operatives charged with criminal activity, mainly businessmen, some of them avoiding prison with plea deals, and not even a hand full of whom were completely exonerated.
Before the governance structure that ditched the three commissioners was implemented in 2011, a governance structure similar to neighboring Summit County, the Democrats held all of the non-judicial county offices in Cuyahoga County, a Democratic stronghold.
Now about a fourth of the 11 county council members, a substitute for the commissioners, are Republican.
Former sheriff Clifford Pinkney, the county's first Black sheriff, resigned in August and was replaced by interim sheriff David Schilling.
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| Former Cuyahoga County Jail warden Eric Ivey and Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst |
And former jail warden Eric Ivey, who is Black and was demoted to associate warden after he was indicted on felony and other charges, was spared jail by Common Pleas Judge Nancy Fuerst last month, Ivey previously pleading guilty to two misdemeanors of falsification and obstruction of justice via a plea deal with prosecutors.
The seasoned judge suspended a 180-day jail sentence and handed Ivey a year's probation
He also resigned, effective immediately, as part of his plea deal.
The judge also gave him 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.
The judge also gave him 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine.
Fuerst said she would jail the former warden if he failed to comply with the terms of his plea deal, including to help prosecutors get indictments on other culprits, her Democratic affiliates in fact, several of them, sources have said.
Activists say that while she gave the Black warden a break, the judge will harass Black defendants she cannot control or convince to plead guilty when they are innocent.
Ivey, 54, resigned with some 28-years employment in the jail he ran into the ground.
Special prosecutor Matthew Meyer, on behalf of Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, whose office replaced that of County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley per O'Malley's request, emphasized that Ivey must help prosecutors nail others, prosecutors dismissing a charge of tampering with evidence, a third degree felony.
"Your honor, as a condition of the plea, the defendant would agree to testify truthfully and give truthful statements in any proceeding in which he is called upon to do so concerning the Cuyahoga County Jail or the operation of Cuyahoga County government." said Meyer to Fuerst when Ivey accepted his plea deal in August.
The former warden stood accused, among other illegal activities, of ordering correction officers to turn off their body cams relative to a drug overdose that left an inmate dead jail and county officials, including former Pinkney, and Budish, whose offices were raided twice this year by the FBI, also accused of ignoring the deaths until the FBI stepped in.
Last November U.S. Marshals released a stinging report of the county jail, one of the most notorious jails in the country, and deemed the mistreatment of inmates, including ignoring and covering up inmate deaths, rodent and roach infested facilities, the housing of pregnant women on mats on the floor, withholding food for punishment and assault on female and other inmates, inhumane and unconstitutional.
Cleveland activists were upset with the plea deal, and with Fuerst, and picketed outside of the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in downtown Cleveland when Ivey was sentenced, activists demanding jail time from the former warden.
They say the judge gave the former warden a pass because the victims of his jail mishaps are disproportionately Black and overwhelming poor, though most of the dead inmates were White, sources saying he ran the jail like a modern day plantation.
White inmates were shown favoritism, particularly by jail sergeants and corporals who do inmate discipline and jail cell placements when inmates are booked in, most of the corporals, and the sergeants, for both men and women inmates, of whom are White men.
They say the judge gave the former warden a pass because the victims of his jail mishaps are disproportionately Black and overwhelming poor, though most of the dead inmates were White, sources saying he ran the jail like a modern day plantation.
White inmates were shown favoritism, particularly by jail sergeants and corporals who do inmate discipline and jail cell placements when inmates are booked in, most of the corporals, and the sergeants, for both men and women inmates, of whom are White men.
"Judge Fuerst accepting a misdemeanor plea deal from the former warden of the county jail is unacceptable," said longtime activist Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc.
Five of the nine inmate deaths were purportedly the result of suicide.
Fuerst is also under fire for denying Blacks and activists indigent counsel and their speedy trial rights, and scheduling trials not journalized or put in writing and then arbitrarily jailing Black defendants maliciously accused of crimes against racist White cops when they do not appear for her unconstitutional trials.
Public records also reveal that she is ordering Blacks to trials she schedules in under 24 hours without formal notice, and then jailing them via arrest warrants if they fail to appear. And, data show that she is covering up alleged indictment fixing by fellow judges, prosecutors and the clerk of courts, grand jury tampering, and falsification of court records, much of it with the help of corrupt attorneys she handpicks and appoints to felony cases of indigent Blacks.
Public records also reveal that she is ordering Blacks to trials she schedules in under 24 hours without formal notice, and then jailing them via arrest warrants if they fail to appear. And, data show that she is covering up alleged indictment fixing by fellow judges, prosecutors and the clerk of courts, grand jury tampering, and falsification of court records, much of it with the help of corrupt attorneys she handpicks and appoints to felony cases of indigent Blacks.
Further, Fuerst is refusing to journalize when Blacks show at trial and cops who claim they have assaulted them do not, an alleged effort, says sources, to manipulate speedy trial rights. And, she is issuing orders for Black defendants to be jailed if they insult or take up too much time of White indigent counsel she handpicks for felony cases before her like attorney Brian McGraw, and if they ask them to file motions that she and assistant county White prosecutors deem unnecessary.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper and Black blog. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is an experienced Black political reporter who covered the 2008 presidential election for the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio and the presidential elections in 2012 and 2016 As to the one-on-one interview by Coleman with Obama CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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