Breaking: White Cuyahoga County grand jury foremen helped former county prosecutor Tim Mcginty get and fix indictments against indigent Blacks who opposed him for reelection with judges like Judge Nancy Fuerst denying them indigent counsel, speedy trials, etc...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
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CLEVELAND, Ohio- Former Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, now a visiting judge for the 34- member, largely White common pleas general division court, used White, male grand jury foremen to help him get Blacks indicted who would not support him for reelection and then used them to fix indictments he disagreed with for political and other reasons.
This is according to public records and a longitudinal investigation of county racism and public corruption by Ohio's most read Black digital news media (Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
McGinty lost reelection in 2016 to current County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley, who is up for reelection, and data show that O'Malley's office is proceeding with prosecuting such defendants as his assistant county prosecutors, the clerk of courts, and select common pleas judges are concealing the original indictments with fixed indictments. And common pleas judges like Judge Nancy Fuerst are harassing the Defendants who speak out about the racism and public corruption, doing such things as denying them indigent counsel and speedy trials, tampering with records and meeting privately and exparte with defense counsel and prosecutors to their detriment.
According to grand jury transcripts, the county grand jury foremen at issue are former Middleburg Hts mayor Gary Star and a Middleburg Hts resident with the last name of Morelli, both White men appointed by common pleas judges as foremen. The original indictments are signed by Starr as foreman, who is no longer mayor, and the fixed one's with added charges for police are signed by Morelli, records show. Both are purportedly corrupt and they routinely fix indictments with added charges against Black people, a comprehensive investigation by Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader, reveals.
One defendant's attorney in an unrelated civil case lured him or her to that city to get an illegal arrest by a dirty White cop and to try to stop a protest relative to the Imperial Avenue Murders in Cleveland of 11 Black women by the late serial killer Anthony Sowell, who died of an undisclosed illness on death row.
The charges, all trumped-up misdemeanors, were dropped seven years later, but not until after Starr as grand jury foreman helped to get the person at issue, who's names is being withheld for safety reasons, indicted as as grand jury foreman for McGinty and others caught up in ongoing county government public corruption
" Give us what money you have on you and you will be released for a court date," Middleburg Hts police police would say after the illegal arrests of Blacks lured to the city to get falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted.
To make matters worse, say activists, common pleas judges are denying them indigent counsel following indictment in an effort to perpetuate the impropriety.
"Everybody who is indigent should be afforded counsel," said Prosecutor O'Malley through his press spokesperson in a phone message in response to indigent Blacks being denied appointed counsel in the county court of common pleas. But Black Cleveland activists say "actions speak louder than words" and want O'Malley to order his assistant county prosecutors to challenge Fuerst and other common pleas judges like Nancy Fuerst who are harassing Blacks, women, and activists, and denying them legal representation..
Fuerst is under fire from Black Cleveland activists for denying indigent Blacks counsel, tampering with records, falsification, and interfering with Civil Rights.
They say the White well-known judge, who's late father was a judge too, is deliberately refusing to journalize when Blacks appear for trial in frivolous cases when White crooked cops accusing them of crimes fail to show and then lying in journal entries and saying they missed a subsequent trial date that was not journalized or docketed as required. She then issues bench warrants for them to be jailed where they say they are harassed in jail and this is even though the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled without ambiguity that judges speak through their journal entries and trial dates must be jounalized with notice to defendants to be effective.
Fuerst says in journal entries or orders that she has the authority to waive indigent counsel to Blacks simply by issuing warrants, whether legal or illegal, as activists say this practice remains illegal and that she outright lacks any such authority, and that it "sets a bad precedent." And not one authority, such as the rules of court or relevant case law, supports any such arbitrary and capricious judicial determination, research reveals, though state law precludes a public servant, under the color of his or office, from interfering with Civil Rights. According to statute, these rights include the right to vote, to a free public education and to a speedy trial, a public trial, and indigent counsel.
Activists say the most troubling issue is grand jury indictment fixing where Fuerst and county prosecutors are prosecuting Blacks after the original indictments are altered or fixed by the clerk and the office of the county prosecutor and the charges are upped and the original indictment is concealed by all involved from prosecutors to county clerks, public defenders and other defense counsel, and corrupt judges.
Community activists want an extensive FBI probe and a public corruption investigation as well as criminal charges against Fuerst, 72, McGinty and others so applicable for interfering with the Civil Rights of Blacks, falsification and tampering with records by allegedly concealing original indictments after they have been fixed, and manipulating court records against Blacks.
Data further show that assistant county prosecutors under O'Malley are often present when the judge is denying Blacks indigent counsel counsel and doing a host of other illegal things, and that they do not object, and some of them are in on the activity. Ironically, the office of the county prosecutor represents and backs the judges at issue in cases on appeal or if a writ is filed with the 8th District Court of Appeals or the Ohio Supreme Court. Anybody who fights back is made to look like a criminal in those proceedings often times before even being convicted.
Activists say it is a conflict of interest for prosecutors who appear before judges for the state to later represent them via appeals and via writs filed seeking redress for the mistreatment. They want the law changed by the state legislature.
Judge Fuerst is also holding backroom meetings with prosecutors and the indigent attorneys some Blacks get and they are agreeing to orders from the judge to jail or institutionalize Black defendants if they fail to do what the attorneys tell them to do, or if they do not call off community protests The orders are issued after she has ex parte conversations with prosecutors and defense counsel that she has a hold on and who's careers are often guided by public corruption and malfeasance and how much they cooperate.
A comprehensive investigation by Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader, reveals that McGinty has had activists indicted who backed O'Malley after seeking but not getting support for reelection in 2016. Grand jury transcripts secured in the cases reveal that the grand jury process is rigged before corrupt judges, and nearly everything thereafter wreaks of impropriety, including where McGinty and the county criminal clerk who has since been reassigned altered indictments to their choosing and increased the criminal charges, often adding more White cops in the fixed indictment. And some of the added cops will not appear to testify at trial for fear of perjuring themselves, forcing Judge Fuerst to scheme with illegal warrants and anything else she can do to try to destroy Blacks victims impacted by the public corruption, cop malfeasance, and institutional racism.
When Fuerst is asked about the indictment fixing at pretrials and for an associated hearing her response is that "that is an issue for trial." Hence, judges in the county are part of indictment fixing too, and defendants who complain get jailed one way or another and threatened with retribution.
Judge Fuerst is also denying Blacks speedy trials and forging case records to suggest otherwise, another scheme the judge routinely utilizes. The thought that her neglect partly causes a speedy trial violation that merits dismissal of applicable cases is too much for her to bear, say sources. Those who complain get a bench warrant from the judge and she then removes indigent counsel so they cannot fight back through appointed counsel who often say they are friends with the judge and must do what she wants them to do to get more cases from her.
Community activists want a random draw process for the assignment of indigent counsel and judges at all times, particularly since Fuerst is often handpicked for cases that are frivolous and politically motivated so she can allegedly try to seal the deal and get illegal convictions and forced plea deals, sources say.
The U.S. Supreme Court, the Ohio Supreme Court and lower appellate courts throughout Ohio have ruled that unless waived, poor and indigent people facing the state as an adversary in felony and high misdemeanor criminal cases, including Blacks, have a statutory right under state law and a constitutional right under the due process guarantees under the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions to indigent counsel.
The county public defender's office, which is now led by chief public defender Cullen Sweeney, says it agrees, with one assistant county public defender saying, "it is absolute that indigent people have a right to indigent counsel in serious cases."
Asked if Cuyahoga County has an obligation under state law to supply indigent Blacks with counsel she said "yes and so does the state."
The county public defender's office says that prosecutors and county clerks are changing or fixing grand jury indictments and upping the charges illegally, according to court filings and motions made by former chief public defender Mark Stanton and others in his office, Stanton a pro-cop public defender who covered up cop impropriety in cases involving those maliciously prosecuted like innocent Blacks He has since retired or was forced out.
Hired by the county in spite of his background as a criminal defense attorney who represented police officers in criminal proceedings, Stanton was replaced by Cullen Sweeney.
Among other disparities, Judge Fuerst is also accused of refusing to jounalize trial dates so the public, including the mainstream media and community activists, will not know that she is hearing a trial to undermine Black defendants for prosecutors. That way she thinks she can do as she pleases without repercussions, sources say, partly because nobody knows she is holding a secret trial other than her Black victims. And she is ordering defense counsel to deliver emails and other communications sent to them from indigent clients that are critical of her or such counsel, with counsel threatening Black defendants that if they participate in protests and criticize the judge and appointed counsel the judge will either jail or institutionalize them.
The fact that the undisciplined judge is denying Blacks speedy trials while simultaneously denying them indigent counsel has activists truly upset.
"Our protests will continue until justice prevails," one activist said. "And anybody victimized by the county public corruption and racism should contact us."
Defendants have a constitutional right to a public trial under the sixth amendment of the U.S Constitution, which Judge Fuerst apparently has no respect for, sources say. In fact she has no respect for the rule of law in Ohio, they say, where the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, once call her "corrupt" in a published article.
Moreover,when activists picket against impropriety Judge Fuerst issues orders that she will jail the defendants, and if Black defendants urge appointed defense counsel to file motions like dismissal on speedy trial grounds they will be jailed for that too, and possibly institutionalized, the judge says in her ludicrous court orders.
- Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interviewCLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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