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CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ed Wade, a Black Republican and former assistant city prosecutor and local defense attorney turned judge, is reportedly seriously ill and in a nursing home in the city.
Wade, a source said, has been sick for a while and reportedly has stage four cancer.
He is not accepting public visitors and media and other requests should be directed to his attorney, James Hardiman, also the attorney and second vice president for the Cleveland NAACP.
First elected to the Cleveland Municipal Court in 2013, Wade, 69, won an unexpired term that year and replaced Judge Charles Bauernschmidt, who was appointed by Gov. John Kasich to fill the vacancy created by the election of Judge Michael John Ryan to the county juvenile court bench.
Wade ousted longtime Cleveland Judge Pauline Tarver in a non-partisan election last year to gain her seat before his term expires in 2017, a race he said he entered against a fellow Black judge because by 2017 he would have been too old, at 70 , to seek reelection to his own seat. The state law limit for Ohio judges is 70.
His successful run against Tarver, whom he beat 57 percent to 47 percent, created divisiveness in the Black community, women's groups in particular, including the Black Women's Political Action Committee.
Tarver had been chastised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, for her attendance record due allegedly to illness and for taking care of her since deceased mother. And this is though White judges absent from the bench, like KJ Montgomery in Shaker Heights, were not targets of the Plain Dealer.
Sources say that the Plain Dealer's scrutiny of Tarver is partly motivated by alleged racial animus, coupled with sexism, particularly since some skeptical White male judges, and White women like Judge Montgomery, have escaped newspaper criticism for serious behaviors against the public.
Tarver was reportedly against a specialized mental health docket pushed by Presiding and Administrative Judge Ron Adrine, who is also Black and leads the largely Black 12-member general court that hears traffic cases, misdemeanors, and civil cases with damages sought at or below $15,000.
Some people favor the mental health docket that took effect in 2014 and is under expansion. It is designed to provide services to the mentally ill that face criminal charges , and in cooperation with the mental health community.
But others, some community activists in fact, say it is sometimes used as retaliation by the judges, and to make unnecessary money, and that the judges are ill equipped to act as mental health counselors and doctors.
In fact, the judges themselves, rather than qualified mental health professionals, make the initial recommendation for defendants to be placed on the mental health docket. And it is illegal if such recommendations are pursued absent the option of defendants to first secure an outside assessment as permitted under state law.
And rarely, if at all, do the judges advise defendants of their right to an independent assessment.
Data show that former Cleveland Judge Kathleen Ann Keough, a White Democrat elected to the 8th District Court of Appeals in 2010, would illegally use mental health issues that did not exist to harass outspoken Blacks subject to malicious prosecutions by the city that her political foes had it in for. At the time the court did not have a specialized mental health docket but instead a mental health clinic run by Keough with chief judge Adrine's support.
Research also reveals that some of the judges were simply referring people for mental health assessments for money for court coffers.
Also at issue are due process privacy rights and constitutional matters in general, though the Supreme Court has arbitrarily sanctioned the questionable program.
Ohio's high court also has corruption and fairness issues, research reveals, activity that is typically overlooked by a biased mainstream media.
Wade led the specialized mental health docket for the court and attorney Hardiman, who along with Judge Adrine helped Wade unseat Tarver, is a member of the board that oversees the docket, another indication, said sources, that Tarver was a target because she may have questioned the process.
A Democrat, Tarver could not be reached for comment.
Regardless, those harmed by the abuse of power of the mental health docket are overwhelmingly Black, since most defendants that the court serves, whether in good or bad faith, are Black.
Tarver is a woman's rights advocate and a former executive director of the Cleveland NAACP.
Like Tarver, Wade is also known in Cleveland circles for helping the poor and downtrodden and would often represent poor people in criminal cases free of charge when he was a defense attorney. He too has community activist support.
"We are going to discuss Judge Wade and pray for him at our meeting today," said longtime community activist Ada Averyhart, 81.
Averyhart spoke last Saturday to Cleveland Urban News.Com, Ohio's most read digital Black newspaper, before attending a meeting that day of the grassroots group the Carl Stokes Brigade, of which she is a member.
Wade has put himself out as an advocate for the fair administration of justice.
“I have handled cases from jaywalking to murder and have always been a strong advocate for justice, no matter the race, creed, or issues of the case,” said Wade in his online judicial biography for the court. “It is my belief that our justice system only works when the community believes that the justice system is fair to all who come before it."
A lifelong resident of Cleveland, Judge Wade is a product of the Cleveland public school system. He graduated from Glenville High School and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Dayton and a law degree from Howard University School of Law.
The judge's case docket has been taken over by a visiting judge assigned by Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a popular Republican and former Lt. governor.
If Wade does not return to the bench, and sources said last week that it is unlikely that he will not, Gov. Kasich, a Republican and former presidential candidate, will, by law, appoint his replacement.
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com). Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com
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