Former Cleveland Councilman Basheer Jones sentenced to prison despite pleas for leniency and probation from Black leaders and activists...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor
CLEVELAND, Ohio — After pleading guilty late last year to wire fraud and honest services fraud, former Cleveland Ward 7 Councilman Basheer Jones on Tuesday was sentenced to 28 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge J. Phillip Calabreze, a Republican appointed to the federal bench in the Northern District of Ohio in 2020 by President Donald Trump during his first term in office. The judge also ordered the former councilman to pay more than $148,000 in restitution and to serve three years probation after completing his sentence.
Jones' attorney, Fernando Mack, and some greater Cleveland Black leaders like former congresswoman and prior HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge and some Black community activists wanted leniency and probation, Fudge among dozens of people who wrote supportive letters to the judge.
Asked by reporters before the sentencing hearing on Tuesday if he had any response to the outcome and what led up to the scenario, the former councilman said it was "in Gods hands."
Jones, 40 years old, Black, and a devout Muslim, was an east side councilman from 2017-2021. He did not seek reelection to city council in 2021, instead choosing to run for mayor, a race he lost in a crowded non-partisan primary that yielded a win for current Mayor Justin Bibb, who went on to overwhelmingly beat then council president and second place primary finisher Kevin Kelley in the general run-off election.
The first Muslim to serve on city council, Jones was charged in a two-count information with conspiring to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud for using his role as a public official for personal financial gain by allegedly seeking to defraud multiple community stakeholders out of more than $200,000.
According to court documents, from about December 2018 to June 2021 Jones allegedly misrepresented and concealed material facts to induce nonprofit organizations to enter into a variety of arrangements that would benefit him and his romantic partner co-conspirator, who has since been charged.
Prosecutors say Jones’ schemes were devised to line his pockets by deceiving nonprofit entities into making payments toward projects they thought were for the community’s benefit, but research reveals that the situation is more complicated than it appears since city council, per city ordinance, must approve and sign off on community development projects, larger and more lucrative projects of which routinely go to White developers without question.
The true profiteers of Cleveland's community development projects are White developers, sources said, and data show, and they rarely, if at all, face prosecution.
Nonetheless, Blacks like former Ohio 11th congressional district congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge of greater Cleveland, also secretary of HUD (Housing and Urban Development) when former President Joe Biden held office, sought leniency for Jones, saying he lost his way but does not deserve prison.
In a letter to the judge, among supportive letters from dozens of people, including intellectual scholar, famed raced-based author, activist and former independent candidate for president Dr. Cornel West, Fudge wrote that Basheer Jones, her former protege, is a "decent man with a big heart and a love of people."
By Kathy Wray Coleman: Kathy Wray Coleman is a long time Cleveland journalist, blogger, digital and social media reporter, and seasoned investigative reporter
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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