[1]From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online New Blog.Com(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com [2])
Just two days after allowing her paid attorney to withdraw at the request of the family Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin Murray summoned Collinwood High School graduate Destini Bronaugh to her courtroom Thurs., March 10.
Bronaugh, 19, who graduated last summer, is facing misdemeanor charges of obstruction of official business and resisting arrest brought by the City of Cleveland in retaliation for her participation last May in a peaceful student protest at the school around teacher layoffs and school closings. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The incident, including Bronaugh's brutal arrest at the protest by Cleveland Fifth District police officers, was caught on video. It has gotten some 20,000 hits on youtube.com under the title "Cleveland Police Brutalize Student Protesters."
Police allegedly went to the protest at the school on May 13 last year to harass the protesting students per the directives of higher ups, arresting Bronaugh's younger sister for an alleged curfew violation for the protest, and then targeting Bronaugh when she complained.
A Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Magistrate last year dismissed charges against Bronaugh's younger sister because state law mandates that students receive a citation before any arrest on a charge of a curfew violation.
Appointed in Jan by outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland to complete the unexpired term left when Kathleen Ann Keough was elected in Nov. to the Ohio Eighth District Court of Appeals, McLaughlin Murray is well aware that Rule 17.1 of the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure provides for counsel at pretrials if the defendant is facing prison, unless waived by the defendant. And in addition to requiring the girl's mother, Tina Bronaugh, 42, to take off work to accompany her daughter, she had the 3 policemen associated with the incident, some accused of abuse of the girl in conjunction with the arrest last year, in the courtroom, allegedly as a means of attempted intimidation. This occurred even though the judge had canceled the scheduled trial of March 10 two days earlier when Destini Bronaugh's attorney was allowed to withdraw.
According to the case docket the judge issued an order for Destini Bronaugh to attend on Thurs. even without counsel so that she could decide whether to address the motion filed by the attorney she had let withdraw two days before.
"We had activists there so that Destini could not be targeted with illegal crimes against police like Rebecca Whitby where they could have accused her of anything since she had no attorney of record with her and this case is politically motivated," said Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women. "We blame Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson for pushing his appointed law director, Robert Triozzi, to harass this young Black woman with malicious criminal charges in retaliation for a peaceful student protest protected under the free speech clause under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution."
Also joining community activists at Thursday’s hearing was outspoken Cleveland Ward 8 Councilman Jeff Johnson, who is supporting Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Pinkey Carr in this year's election for the seat now held by McLaughlin Murray.
After filing what activists say was a motion with McLaughlin Murray designed allegedly to incriminate Destini Bronaugh, his own client, Attorney Robert DeMarco was fired by the family last week, forcing McLaughlin Murray to cancel Thurs. scheduled trial date and to grant his motion to withdraw.
Attorney Anthony Jordan, a chief city prosecutor under the administration of former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, entered an appearance on Destini Bronaugh's behalf around noon on Thurs., the day McLaughlin Murray said the young woman had to appear alone. But he did not appear with her due to an alleged former engagement, and he did not immediately ask McLaughlin Murray for a continuance for his new client, though the judge was advised by Tina Bronaugh that her daughter had no counsel to appear with her and the statement fell on death ears.
After all of the inconvenience McLaughlin Murray told Destini Bronaugh at Thursday's hearing that the case would be continued, something she could have done by docket entry as opposed to summoning the girl to encounter the police that arrested her at the school last May.
Destini Bronaugh was indicted by a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury last year on a felony charge of assault against police and resisting arrest around the protest last year, but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason dismissed the charges as lacking merit, only for an angry Jackson and corrupt and racist Triozzi to bring the pending charges on behalf of the City of Cleveland.
Tina Bronaugh said that the prosecution of her daughter is motivated by racial animus and is uncalled for in the 21st century.
"This is an unjust prosecution and we will fight it to the end," she said.
Jackson, who controls Cleveland's public schools via state law, is accused of using Destini Bronaugh as a pawn due to his anger at the Cleveland Teachers Union over turbulent contract negotiations last year, though union members ultimately ratified a new contract. Last week the Democratic mayor reportedly told reporters that unions under his purview were not all doing what he wants them to and that he and Ohio Gov John Kasich, who is pushing for passage of a bill to break Ohio unions dubbed Senate Bill 5, are good friends. Kasich attended the mayor's State of the City Address last week at Public Auditorium where some 100 union protesters greeted the governor outside with signs saying "kill the bill."
After narrowly passing the Senate, SB 5, a Republican fueled initiative that is now in committee at the House of Representatives, is one Ohio's most politically divisive issues.
Coleman said that`she knows no Cleveland mayor that has such hostility toward innocent Blacks and women like Jackson seemingly has, and that judicial malfeasance is rampant in Cuyahoga County relative to common pleas court and municipal court judges.
"Some of these judges are out of control and their behavior is being sanctioned by officials of the Cleveland NAACP," said Coleman. "Judge Keough is bad but Judge McLaughlin Murray seems to have such a flagrant disregard for the law that we must question her fitness for the bench."
The judge, who was personally assigned to the case, set a pretrial for April 4 after Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez, who attended the hearing Thurs. and brought the 3 policemen allegedly on hand for intimidation purposes when no trial was scheduled, said he would be out of the country for the next few weeks.
Coleman said that activists will be watching to see if McLaughlin Murray gets an endorsement from the Cleveland Police Patromen's Association since she had police at the hearing Thurs. to allegedly intimidate Destini Bronaugh and community activists.