By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher

COLUMBUS, Ohio-Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (pictured), a conservative Republican vying to become a U.S. senator from Ohio next year, joined in legal action Wednesday opposing a Colorado case that could ultimately keep former president Donald Trump's name off of the state’s 2024 statewide election ballot.

The highly-watched case that has been labeled a 14th amendment case by political pundits has implications for states nationwide and is now on appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court, after the state's highest court, on Tuesday evening, agreed to hear the appeal.

This week, LaRose signed on to an amicus brief (friend of the court brief) filed in the controversial case brought by a group of Colorado voters, joining chief election officials from Wyoming and Missouri in opposition.

While the Denver district court ruling on appeal, premised on what some legal experts say is an ambiguous clause under the 14th amendment that bans an official who has engaged in insurrection from holding office, says Trump did, in fact, engage in insurrection, it also says that such engagement in insurrection does not disqualify him from Colorado's ballot in 2024, a win by some standards for the Trump campaign and Republicans.

LaRose and the secretaries of state from Missouri and Wyoming argue in their amicus brief that the insurrection determination sets an unfair and dangerous legal precedent that could potentially impact elections in other states, including Ohio, Missouri and Wyoming.

The amicus brief filing asks the Colorado Supreme Court to overturn the part of the district court ruling that says the former president, who has not been criminally convicted of insurrection, engaged in insurrection on January 6, 2021 when his supporters, angry over the results of the 2020 election, literally rioted at the Capitol.

LaRose's support of the former president's 2024 bid for president comes as Democrats in Ohio seek to turn the state blue at least relative to the next presidential election cycle, after winning two statewide measures on last month's Nov. 7 ballot in Ohio, Issue 1, which made abortion and other reproductive measures legal in Ohio for women, and Issue 2, which legalized recreational marijuana.

Ohio leading Republicans, led by Gov. Mike DeWine, remain upset over the aforementioned wins by Democrats and vow to do anything legally possible to upend them.

Republicans hold every statewide office in Ohio, other than a few seats on the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court and the office held by senior U.S. Sen Sherrod Brown, a beloved Cleveland Democrat up for reelection whom LaRose wants to try to oust, if he wins the Republican nomination for the senate seat next year.

Democrats, no doubt, want Trump's name off of any state ballot next year, particularly in swing states that he won in 2016, and in 2020 when he lost reelection to President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking a second term as president.

Trump won Ohio in  2020 by eight percentage points, and in 2016 by a smaller margin.

But Democrats intend to make it harder for him to possibly win Ohio in 2024, saying they are still fired-up behind winning on abortion this year via a hard fought multi-million dollar Issue 1 campaign led by activist women's rights groups and grassroots activists where even some Republican women supported the measure, some of the same White, female voters who supported Trump in 2016 when he defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for president.

Clinton is the first woman ever nominated by a major political party in America for president.

LaRose insists that the aspect of the Colorado ruling on appeal that says the former president engaged in insurrection is outright wrong, and misleading. He says that voters, and not judges, should determine Trump's election fate, though the Colorado case could eventually end up before the judges or justices of the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court that consist of three seemingly loyal Trump appointees who joined other justices to destroy Roe for Trump.

“This is a classic case of judicial overreach, and the judge’s ruling in this case has no basis in the law,” said LaRose regarding the Colorado district court ruling in a press release to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader. “The district court’s order relies on flimsy and circumstantial evidence to reach a flawed conclusion with far-reaching implications both for the [former] president’s own legal defense and for the broader democratic process of free and fair elections.”

He went on to say that "the decision of the district court, if upheld, not only sets a concerning precedent but also encroaches upon the fundamental rights of voters, a principle deeply embedded in our democratic fabric.”

The Colorado Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the appeal for Dec. 6. and LaRose has stated that he will oppose any efforts to prevent presidential ballot access in Ohio based  on what he calls "fringe legal theories related to the 14th amendment to the Constitution." And he says he is ready for the legal fight over the issue as Ohio's chief election official, a duty he says he owes to Ohioans.

"Ohio law clearly lays out the process for a candidate to seek ballot access, and our job in the Ohio secretary of state office is to follow the law," LaRose said.

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

COLUMBUS, Ohio-Today, Senate Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio (pictured) (D-Lakewood), who's 23rd district includes 14 of Cleveland's 17 wards, released the following statement in support of the passage of House Bill 161, Representatives Jessica Miranda (D- Forest Park) and Brett Hillyer's (R-Uhrichsville) legislation to end the spousal exemption for rape and other sex crimes.

"I commend the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Legal Aid of Cleveland, Representatives Miranda and Hillyer and the countless advocates who have fought to bring Ohio to the 21st century and end the archaic exemption of marital rape," said Antonio. "These changes must be made to modernize Ohio's rape code and give survivors of sex crimes the justice they deserve. I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to ensure this bill reaches the governor's desk."

State Sen. Antonio previously introduced Senate Bill 162 in 2019 and Senate Bill 198 in 2021 to eliminate the spousal exemption for rape and end the statute of limitations on rape and sexual assault, respectively.

House Bill 161 now awaits committee assignment in the Ohio Senate.

• Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interviewCLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITA

Cullen Sweeney (pictured)

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 1

CLICK HERE FOR INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 2

CLICK HERE TO READ INVESTIGATIVE ARTICLE PART 3

Staff article: investigative article Part 5

CLEVELAND, Ohio- The Cuyahoga County public defender's office is conspiring with Common Pleas Judge Nancy A. Fuerst, a former administrative and presiding judge of the 34-member, largely White general division common pleas bench in the county, to deny indigent Blacks counsel after she issues illegal warrants to jail them in the county jail where more than 20 inmates have died since 2018.

"We sent an attorney to talk to Judge Fuerst and the judge said she will appoint counsel after the person is jailed," said Chief Public defender Cullen Sweeney, a judicial wannabe who ran unsuccessfully for common pleas judge in 2012.

Activists say the people she jails are harassed in jail and threatened with shanks and want to know how many of the dead inmates had cases before the judge.

Asked his position on indigent counsel when the judge's warrants are illegal, Sweeney said indigent Blacks have no right to indigent counsel even if the warrants are illegal, and that they should report to the county jail and then hope the judge will do right by them.

" They either report to jail or the warrants will remain," he said in an angry, seemingly racist tone, adding that he too believes that Blacks should be jailed and denied indigent counsel if judges like Fuerst, 72 and White, deem it necessary.

But prior to an attorney from his office speaking privately and ex parte with the crooked and racist judge his position was that Blacks have a legal right to indigent counsel against Fuerst and that her warrants and her refusal to jounalize when Blacks appear for trial and her acts of faking future trial dates and issuing warrants when Blacks fail to appear are all illegal.

The sudden switch, says activists, merits a criminal complaint against Sweeney, who is White, and is indicative of public corruption and racism, and his office conspiring with White common pleas judges to deny poor Blacks indigent counsel.

Simply put, Sweeney's racist standpoint is that he wants Black people caged in the county jail no matter what, which is proof, say activists, that he dislikes Blacks and is corrupt and unfit as chief public defender, and that he should be replaced.

Research reveals that public corruption and racism are rampant in the county's troubled legal system where judges, prosecutors and police do as they please to Blacks with impunity, whether its gunning them down while they are unarmed, maliciously prosecuting them, or fixings indictments and court proceedings to get illegal convictions in malicious criminal cases.

Fuerst is also ordering Blacks to trial in a day, knowing that that is not time enough for the clerks office to get notice to them and she is then issuing warrants, and Sweeney's office is agreeing with that illegal posture too.

The judge, says defense attorneys, is out of control and often cannot even remember the names of defendants who come before her unless, of course, they are Black and she has it in for them.

The purpose of the judge's erratic behavior, say activists, is to help the prosecution win and to deny Black defendants a speedy and  fair trial, sources say, which violates the sixth amendment of the U.S. Constitution as to the mandate for a fair trial to all defendants facing the state as an adversary in cases that can result in a denial of liberty rights.

Corrupt White assistant prosecutors say nothing and are glad when Judge Fuerst issues her now infamous warrants against Black defendants in an effort to get around speedy trial rights, and to tamper with records, which is a felony crime under Ohio law.

According to previous investigations as to our ongoing series on county public corruption and racism here at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader. Fuerst is also refusing to jounalize when Blacks appear for trial and cops accusing them of crimes fail to show. She then  issues illegal warrants for future fake  trial dates not documented or journalized and issued without notice. All of it, say sources, is tampering with records and falsification to get around the right to a a speedy trial and to get illegal convictions against Black people

Indigent Blacks have a legal right to counsel under state law and  a constitutional right under the due process guarantees under the Ohio and U. S. Constitutions.

Activists say that because Sweeney and the public defender's office are conspiring with Judge Fuerst to deny Black people indigent counsel he will be added to the citizens criminal complaint that they are preparing against Fuerst seeking criminal charges for interfering with the Civil Rights of Black people, a crime under Ohio law.

The crooked judge purportedly told the public defender's office that sought the lifting of the illegal warrants that she wants Blacks impacted by her warrants jailed and that thereafter she will bring them to court without counsel for one of her biased hearings. But Black victims of her judicial scams say they are afraid to appear before her without counsel and that she is out of control and obsessed with getting Blacks she does not like jailed for racist prosecutors and cops who are targeting them, and to perpetuate the ongoing racism and county public corruption that plague the county's common pleas court.

This is a continuing investigation of Cuyahoga County government corruption and racism against Blacks in the county

Staff article:

CLEVELAND, Ohio- A coalition of community activists upset over the recent deaths of jail inmates and a new multi-million dollar Cuyahoga County Jail complex slated for construction by county council will hold a short rally and press conference on Monday, Nov. 27 at 2 pm in downtown Cleveland at the Justice Center outside of the jail on Lakeside  Avenue near Ontario Street.

Family members of inmates who have died or have been murdered in the county jail are invited to speak briefly too, organizers said.

In a press release to Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, activists, both Blacks and Whites alike, said they demand answers from County Executive Chris Ronayne, who was overwhelmingly elected and took office this year for his first term, new County Sheriff Harold Pretel, and county council members regarding four inmate deaths this year in the county jail, which also houses Cleveland Municipal Court inmates and some federal district court inmates, among others. Pretel is a former Cleveland deputy police chief.

Activists say that they will also use the occasion to address the recent police shooting of a community member during a wellness check in Garfield Heights, a largely Black Cleveland suburb.

According to the press release, the coalition includes the Cuyahoga County Jail Coalition, No New Jail Cuyahoga, Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Inter-Religious Taskforce on Central America, and REACH.

Activists said that the protest will demand transparency and accountability for the four inmate deaths, immediate and substantive changes to the conditions in the jail, and a moratorium on the sale of the Justice Complex and the building of a new $750 million jail complex until the systemic problems with leadership and staff are solved.

"We can't build our way out of systemic violence. It's time for care, not cages," the coalition said on its Facebook event page.

The recent inmate deaths, and a score of inmate overdoses, show that jail officials are not adequately addressing medical needs of community members who are incarcerated, say activists. Furthermore, they say that two of the four deaths are under investigation due to questionable circumstances around their deaths, including a more recent case of the death of Rogelio Latorre.

Cleveland.com wrote in an article that "It is unclear why Latorre was in the jail. Local and federal court dockets do not list him, and county spokespersons did not return messages seeking comment." This is also fueling the controversy.

Since the stunning US Marshals Report released publicly in 2018 that found atrocious and inhumane conditions for inmates, there have been some 27 known deaths in the jail, say activists. And in 2022 alone they say there were seven known deaths.

What the actual jail inmate death count is remains to be seen, says sources, particularly since falsification and tampering with records by common pleas judges, prosecutors and court clerks are rampant, and go on unchecked.

A new jail complex will not solve the staffing and leadership problems that these deaths and notorious jail conditions allegedly expose, activists say.

No New Jail Cuyahoga and REACH say they will speak about the tragic shooting of a community member by police during a wellness check in Garfield Heights, where the new jail will be located..

The new jail, say anti-jail activists, was rushed, is non-transparent, and is a costly project that will not do anything to help change conditions for incarcerated people in the county, a disproportionate number of them Black.

Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland and is Ohio's second largest of its 88 counties, It is roughly 29 percent Black and is a Democratic stronghold, as is Cleveland, a majority Black major American city dealing with increased violent crime and heightened murders of Black women that have doubled since the pandemic, research shows.

Activists also want something done as to the malicious prosecutions of Blacks pushed by racist cops and prosecutors and the blatant and unconstitutional denial of indigent counsel to Black people by White common pleas judges on the take, and by the county, which is led by White folks too and has the oneness under state law to provide poor Blacks with appointed counsel, even when corrupt and racist judges fail to do so.

The judges, say activists, are a huge part of the problem as to jail overcrowding and Blacks and others jailed illegally and they want to know what role, if any, the judges play as to heightened jail deaths since 2018. White common pleas judges are denying indigent Blacks counsel so that if they are murdered in the jail by design it will be easier to cover-up the deaths, they say. And some inmates dying in jail are on quasi-death row instituted by judges and prosecutors, and before they are convicted of a crime. They say it is quasi capital punishment type activity and a by-product of county government racism and public corruption, and that its is pervasive.

Some community members fear that the county jail has become a death chamber for inmates, led by judges and prosecutors and as county officials and the public defender's office say nothing and do nothing..

One former jail inmate, who is Black and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being harmed, said she has been jailed in the county at least three times for nothing by racist and wicked White judges and racist White cops and was allegedly told by inmates via the most recent time she was jailed that she would eventually be killed. and that police, crooked prosecutors, and some crazy judges want her murdered to silence her.

"They want to get it done cleverly in here, and without getting caught," Black inmates said.

A county public corruption probe initiated by the FBI and other authorities more that 15 years ago that ultimately saw two common pleas judges and a host of others imprisoned remains in existence, sources say.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.