Suspended East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King gets probation from Cuyahoga County Judge Hollie Gallagher, avoiding prison...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader

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                           Ex- East Cleveland mayor Brandon King
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com

Staff article by Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

CLEVELAND, Ohio-Suspended East Cleveland Mayor Brandon KIng avoided prison on Wednesday when Common Pleas Judge Hollie Gallagher sentenced him to three years probation, answering the pleas by Black community activists for leniency and ignoring Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Mike O'Malley's demand for imprisonment.

East Cleveland is a Black impoverished suburb of Cleveland that has a population of some 15,000 people. 

Judge Gallagher also ordered King to take random  drug tests, find a full-time job and serve 100 hours of community service.

King was also fined $9,658.38 and has to reimburse the Ohio Ethics Commission $18,194.99 for the cost of the investigation and prosecution.

He is barred from running for office for the remainder of his life. He was suspended from office by the Ohio Supreme Court prior to trial per the recommendation of O'Malley, a rare situation that activists said was racist and designed to attempt to prejudice the outcome of the trial. 

King, 57, and ex-councilman Ernest Smith, 49, were both convicted by a county jury of public corruption charges in office in May, King for steering more than $75,000 in city contracts to friends and family members and having an unlawful interest in a public contract, and Smith for using a city car and gas card for what he says was community and city business. 

Though they were tried together, Gallagher scheduled the sentencing for Smith for early Tuesday morning and for King early Wednesday morning, an attempt, said activists, to minimize any planned protests. 

An affidavit of disqualification and bias had been filed by King's attorney against Gallagher that sought her removal as presiding judge over the case but it was denied by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy prior to trial.

 Activist Art McKoy of Black of Black Crime Inc., who attended the sentencing hearing of both Smith and King, led an activist protest against O"Malley and racism in the legal system at the  county Justice Center in downtown Cleveland Monday afternoon. Smith escaped prison too and was sentenced to three years probation by Judge Gallagher on Tuesday, and ordered to pay $6,791 in restitution. 

Activists said at Monday's protest that O'Malley is hungry to prosecute activists and Black elected officials like King and Smith while leaving White elected officials alone, including some common pleas judges accused of covering up fixed indictments, falsification, tampering with records, and denying Black and poor defendants their constitutional and statutory right to indigent counsel.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com are the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com

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