Pictured are Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Lance Mason (in red tie), Shaker Heights Municipal Court Judge K.J. Montgomery (in judicial robe), Cleveland Police Patrolman Michael Brelo (in blue shirt), and 137 shots Cleveland police deadly 137 shots shooting victims Malissa Williams, 30, (in White shirt), and Tim Russell, 43, (in blue sweatshirt)
By Editor Kathy Wray Coleman, a community activist and 20-year investigative reporter who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio
(www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)
A COMPREHENSIVE REPORT
SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio- A Black Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas judge charged by the city of Shaker Heights with beating his wife over the weekend received a surety bond from Shaker Heights Municipal Court Judge K.J. Montgomery more than three times the bond amount the jailed judge set in June for Patrolman Michael Brelo, who is White and faces two-counts of voluntary manslaughter in the 137 shots Cleveland police killings of unarmed Blacks Malissa Williams and Tim Russell.
Judge Lance Mason, 46, remains in the Shaker Heights jail regardless of whether he can post bond or not, because of Montgomery's psychiatric evaluation order.
Shaker Heights is a neighboring suburb of Cleveland with a population of some 28,000 people, and is roughly 37 percent Black, U. S. census reports say.
Mason's common pleas courtroom at the Cuyahoga County Justice Center in downtown Cleveland has been temporarily shut down as administrative officials prepare to shuffle his case docket load until and if he returns to the bench.
Black judges of Ohio' municipal and common pleas trial courts that get in legal or disciplinary trouble, particularly in Cuyahoga County, catch all out hell from the mainstream media and in disciplinary proceedings before the bar, usually unlike their White counterparts, an ongoing Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals.
A former state senator and protege of the late Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and on the common pleas bench since 2008, Mason appeared before Montgomery by video conference Monday morning and she issued a $65,000 bond on a second degree felonious assault charge filed at the behest or recommendation of city prosecutor C. Randolph Keller, who is Black and the husband of former Plain Dealer Newspaper columnist Margaret Bernstein.
Keller wants to be a judge too. A former assistant prosecutor for the city of Cleveland, Keller filed petitions to run in the Democratic primary in 2012 for a common pleas judge seat, but later dropped out of the race.
Mason has not been formally indicted by a county grand jury, a necessity under state law for Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty, a Democrat like Mason, who has strong political ties to both Shaker Heights politicians and police, to prosecute him on behalf of the state of Ohio, unless the case is heard by information.
Interestingly, Brelo was handed only a $10,000 bond from Mason himself in June, who heard the arraignment in a Cleveland police manslaughter accusation case now before Common Pleas Judge John O'Donnell, a friend to McGinty, a former longtime common pleas judge who retired from the bench in 2011 to run for county prosecutor.
Currently out of jail on bond, Brelo has pleaded not guilty around the Russell, Williams shooting and awaits trial in a celebrated case of excessive force.
Mason's wife Aisha Fraser Mason, 41, who was treated at South Point hospital and later released, reportedly suffered a bruised jaw, among other injuries. She called 9-1-1 by cell phone this weekend after the judge allegedly hit her in the face, choked her, and put her out of their car at noon on Saturday at the intersection of Ashbury Road and Van Aken Boulevard in Shaker Heights.
A witness who says she saw the couple fighting from her car also called 9-1-1 to corroborate the alleged domestic violence, Shaker Heights police claim, violence that police and Aisha Mason, who filed for divorce on Monday, say has occurred in both public and in private settings.
After dumping his wife since 2005 on the street, Mason then drove off with their two young children, two girls, ages four and six-years-old, still in the car, Aisha Mason told police. The couple has been separated since March, according to public court records, and Mason resides in Cleveland where he was arrested. Other reports say the couple was still living together before the embarrassing incident was made public this week.
Guns were found in the Mason home when police showed up unannounced to arrest Mason without a warrant at about 2:45 pm the same day of the altercation, the police reported. Whether the judge has a carry permit for the weapons police confiscated has not been made public.
Patrolman Brelo, currently suspended from the Cleveland police force without pay, is among 13 non-Black Cleveland police officers that gunned down Williams, 30, and Russell, 43, following a high speed car chase that began in downtown Cleveland and ended in a middle school parking lot in neighboring East Cleveland the night of Nov 29, 2012. The other 12 cops that executed the deadly shooting went free after county prosecutor Tim McGinty prejudiced the grand jury and lobbied for the police officers in a prejudicial manner, community activists say, and data suggest.
Brelo fired 49 of the 137 shots at Russell and Williams after jumping aboard the hood of the 1979 Chevy Malibu that Russell was driving, and where Williams was a passenger. The other 12 Cleveland police officers that did the shooting together fired the remaining 88 bullets, not enough though for a criminal indictment, a majority White county grand jury has said.
Under state law, specifically Ohio Revised Code Chapter 1901, Ohio municipal courts have jurisdiction to hear traffic cases, misdemeanors and civil suits with damages sought at or below $15,000. But that can bind over felony cases to a court of common pleas after a preliminary hearing, unless waived, and prior to grand jury indictments.
Ohio common pleas courts hear felonies, civil cases with damages sought in excess of $15,000, and other cases, such as the filing of an affidavit of prejudice under Ohio Revised Code Section 2701.031 to seek removal of a municipal court judge for prejudice or a conflict of interest, which by state law is determined by the presiding judge of the common pleas court in the county of the municipal court at issue.
A White Democrat with strong ties to the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, Montgomery also issued a protective order which requires that the judge stay 500 feet away from his estranged wife, and she ordered a psychiatric evaluation, saying that Mason acted suicidal during his video arraignment on Monday. Data show, however, that municipal judges in Cleveland, Bedford and elsewhere in the county often use psychiatric evaluations to defame people and to get unneeded monies for the court, particularity if the defendants, some maliciously prosecuted, are Black, female, or outspoken.
The case docket for Shaker Heights court, which also serves the cities of Beachwood, Huntington Valley, Pepper Pike, and University Heights, is being hidden from the public relative to Mason's arrest.
It all happened too quickly, data show, raising questions on whether police, Judge Montgomery, or Keller, who held a press congress on Monday to announce publicly that he is prosecuting a prominent Black judge, one of only three Black judges on the general division bench of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, have heightened media attention around the ordeal for political and other reasons. Others say that Mason is simply allegedly violent, that his alleged abuse of women has caught up with him, and that he can no longer hide behind the prestige of being a judge.
The mainstream media, including the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, quickly published Mason in jail garb, a rarity for White male judges arrested and charged with crimes such as Bedford Municipal Court Judge Harry Jacob, who is White and suspended from the bench following a county grand jury indictment last year on a host a felony and misdemeanor charges, including theft, bribery and solicitation.
Common Pleas Judge Peter Corrigan, a White judge, did not face such hoopla either when he was arrested last year on suspicion of DUI and subsequently pleaded guilty.
Judges Montgomery and Peter Corrigan, and pimp suspended judge Jacob, under the color of their judicial offices, harass Blacks and women, a Cleveland Urban News.Com investigation reveals, and Blacks are subject to malicious prosecutions in Shaker Heights court, particularly by the city of Beachwood.
Jacob's trail is currently underway at the county justice center in downtown Cleveland.
Shaker Heights is an affluent city also routinely accused of housing discrimination against Blacks, the Call and Post Newspaper, a Black Cleveland weekly also with distributions in Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio, once reported.
Pictured are 137 shots Cleveland police shooting victims Malissa Williams, 30, and Tim Russell, 43.
Washington DC – Representatives Tim Ryan (pictured) (OH-13) and Marcia Fudge (pictured) (OH-11) are applauding Akron City Council for expressing their support for the Breaking Addiction Act of 2014 (HR 5136), which was introduced by Fudge and co-sponsored by Ryan, Democratic co-chair of the Addiction Treatment and Recovery Caucus. Both members of Congress represent Akron and others respective areas in Ohio in the U.S. House of Representatives.
