Staff article
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nancy A. Fuerst (pictured), a former administrative and presiding judge of the 34-member, largely White general division common pleas bench in the county and once an unsuccessful candidate for a state supreme court justice seat, is under fire for literally denying indigent Blacks counsel, tampering with records, and interfering with Civil Rights.The public records in the cases at issue are tortuous and by some standards unbelievable. Criminal defense attorneys say the judge is a joke and is "all over the place and is confused."
It has gotten so bad that Black Cleveland area activists are preparing to file a citizen's complaint under state law seeking criminal charges against Fuerst, 72, for interfering with the Civil Rights of Blacks and tampering with records by allegedly concealing an orginal indictment for a fixed indictment, and manipulating case records.
Also at issue is refusing to jounalize when Blacks appear for trial and issuing illegal warrants for trial dates not documented or journalized, and without notice to Black defendants who fail to appear ( Editor's note: Some of those who are jailed say the judge's friends and correction officers often harass them when they are locked up in jail pods where feces and sewage come up through the floors and cockroaches and rats run rampant, Also, young women inmates sometimes allegedly overdose during the night and are simply transported out to the hospital the next morning as if they were already dead The county jail where some 10 inmates have died since 2018 is deplorably, they say).
The names of the judge's Black defendant victims, who say the mainstream media help her and others cover-up malfeasance against the Black community, are being withheld for their safety after claims that they have been threatened with harm and malicious prosecutions, and allegedly told to "shut up and get out of town, or else."
"Community activists have literally witnessed Judge Fuerst, an obviously abusive judge with no boundaries, violate the Civil Rights of Black indigent defendants who come before her and to deny them indigent counsel to fight corrupt and racist prosecutors and to challenge her malfeasance are just some of many illegal things she seemingly does with impunity," said Alfred Porter Jr,. a longtime Black activist and a member of the local activist group Black on Black Crime Inc. "We call for an extensive FBI probe and public corruption investigation of Judge Fuerst and all those like her who are hurting Black people and misusing their positions of power."
Porter went on to say that in issuing illegal warrants and denying Blacks indigent counsel the judge is putting Black defendants she dislikes in positions of being hurt and possibly gunned down by anxious police officers with her permission, particularly given the friction that still exists between police and the Black community. The city of Cleveland is a party to a still existing consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding police reforms. The Cleveland Police Department and other law enforcement venues want nothing to do with Judge Fuerst and her outlandish shenanigans, sources say.
"This judge needs to be disbarred, we believe, and she may not even realize the seriousness of what she is doing and that too is troubling, as is the fact that she gets away with these horrible things" said Porter. "We will protest as we deem it necessary when justice does not prevail, and we urge others to join us without fear of retaliation."
A comprehensive investigation by,Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader, reveals emphatically that Judge Fuerst is issuing capias warrants against Blacks subjected to cases involving suburban White, dirty cops in her court if they fail to come to trial without notice or a required journal entry, and even though the Ohio Supreme Court ruled long ago that a court of record speaks through its journal entries and not mere statements in court or memorandum.
After issuing these illegal warrants the judge is then removing indigent counsel from the cases saying Blacks for whom she issues bench warrants, whether legal or illegal, have absolutely no right to indigent counsel from her standpoint. This is in complete contradiction to the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court, the Ohio Supreme Court and lower appellate courts throughout Ohio have ruled without question that unless waived, poor and indigent people facing the state as an adversary in felony and high misdemeanor criminal cases, including Blacks, have a statutory right under state law and a constitutional right under the due process guarantees under the U.S. and Ohio Constitutions to indigent counsel.
The county public defender's office, which is now led by chief public defender Cullen Sweeney, agrees, with one assistant county public defender saying, "it is absolute that indigent people have a right to indigent counsel in serious cases."
Asked if Cuyahoga County has an obligation under state law to supply indigent Blacks with counsel she said "yes and so does the state."
The county public defender's office says that prosecutors and county clerks are changing or fixing grand jury indictments and upping the charges, according to court filings and motions made by former chief public defender Mark Stanton and others in his office, Stanton a pro-cop public defender who covered up cop impropriety in cases involving maliciously prosecuted and innocent Blacks and has since retired, or was forced out.
Hired by the county in spite of his background as a criminal defense attorney who represented police officers, Stanton, also a former defense attorney who represented cops charged with serious crimes before he became chief public defender, was replaced by Cullen Sweeney.Among other disparities, Judge Fuerst is accused of refusing to jounalize trial dates so the public, including the mainstream media and community activists, will not know that she is hearing a trial to undermine Black defendants for prosecutors. That way she thinks she can do as she pleases without repercussions, sources say, partly because nobody knows she is holding a secret trial other than her Black victims, and few seem to really care. Moreover, when activists picket against impropriety she issues orders that she will jail the defendants, and if Black defendants urge appointed defense counsel to file motions like dismissal on speedy trial grounds they will be jailed for that too, and possibly institutionalized, the judge says in her orders.
In short, the judge says that if she appoints indigent counsel they must do as she directs or they will be removed and their clients will be left without indigent counsel, and activists say such defendants are being "treated like slaves."They say that slave-type activity against Black defendants is routine in the judge's chaotic courtroom.
This is a continuing investigation of Judge Nancy Fuerst and the troubling legal system of Cuyahoga County, which includes the majority Black city of Cleveland and is 29 percent Black. The county is the second largest of Ohio's 88 counties.
- 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 DIGITAL NEWS.
