Pictured are Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, and 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Warrensville Heights Democrat
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By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog, Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman is a community activist and 22- year investigative journalist who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). |
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, who last week issued a bench verdict acquitting White Cleveland police officer Michael Brelo of two counts of voluntary manslaughter for gunning down unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell with 49 bullets in 2012, has fled the state, sources say. (Editor's note : The 12 other non Black police officers that did the shooting, replete with a total of 137 bullets, were not prosecuted per the support of county prosecutor Tim McGinty, and Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine, both White, and both endorsed by local and state police unions).
"He is on the run because he is a corrupt and racist coward," said a local community activist on condition of anonymity. "He nearly ran to his car when he issued the verdict on Saturday morning and he did not come out of the front door of the Justice Center where we were picketing."
Protests have been ongoing since the verdict, which Congresswoman Marcia Fudge has objected to as stunning, and over 71 protesters have been arrested for skirmishes with police in riot gear.
"The decision of Judge John P. O'Donnell to free officer Michael Brelo is a stunning setback on the road to justice for Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, and the people of Cleveland," said Fudge, a licensed attorney who leads Ohio's 11th congressional district, which is predominantly Black and includes the city of Cleveland. "The verdict is another chilling reminder of the broken relationship between the Cleveland Police Department and the community it serves."
A Warrensville Heights Democrat who is Black, Fudge said also that "my heart goes out to the families of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, and to the entire city of Cleveland."
An investigation reveals that O'Donnell, who is White, took a vacation out of guilt and fear, and after allegedly promising police before the verdict that he would clear Brelo. He lost a bid last year as the Democratic candidate seeking to unseat Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice Judi French.
Brelo chose O'Donnell to hear the manslaughter case in lieu of a jury, even after unsuccessfully asking Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor to remove him from the case for bias and corruption. That, say community activists, suggest that O'Donnell, a documented thief who has stolen a wealth of homes from county residents for crooked judges and other elected officials, county officials and banks and mortgage companies such as JPMorgan Chase Bank, could have cut a deal. (Editor's note: Public records that the theft of county residents homes by O'Donnell in fake foreclosure cases he illegally presides over with no plaintiffs in the cases to steal the homes for a fourth of a value for JPMorgan Chase Bank and others also involves, among a host of others, chief foreclosure magistrate Stephen Bucha, Bucha's attorney wife who is employed with the law firm of Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss, corrupt University Heights Mayor Susan InFeld, and her corrupt sidekick of Shaker Heights Judge K.J. Montgomery. Data show that Montgomery, who is White like Infeld, Bucha and Bucha's corrupt wife, has Blacks that complain over the theft maliciously prosecuted. All of the culprits are Democrats and key operatives of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party).
Cleveland is a largely Black major American city, and is the second largest city in Ohio next to Columbus.
Cuyahoga County, which includes the city of Cleveland, is the largest of Ohio's 88 counties and is roughly 29 percent Black.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).