Mayor’s grandson gets probation in assault case
The grandson of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and received probation on Wednesday in the middle of his trial on felonious assault charges in a June incident.
Frank Q. Jackson Jr., 23, struck a deal with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office on the second day of testimony in a case in which an 18-yearold woman accused him of punching her, choking her and hitting her with a metal truck hitch on June 10.
Prosecutors dismissed an abduction charge as part of the plea bargain.
Common Pleas Court Judge John P. O’Donnell then imposed an 18-month probation sentence.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors dismissed two counts of failure to comply before the trial began on Monday. Mayor Jackson, who sat in the back of the courtroom and watched his grandson plead guilty to assault Wednesday, declined to answer questions from reporters as he left the courtroom.
“I’m happy for my grandson,” the elder Jackson said.
Wednesday’s plea came shortly after O’Donnell announced a lunch break in the middle of a Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority police officer’s testimony.
O’Malley’s office obtained an indictment charging Jackson Jr. in August, after city prosecutors initially declined to bring charges without consulting his office.
Delilah Swift, who is now 19, took the stand on Tuesday and maintained that
Jackson Jr. punched her, choked her and hit her with a metal truck hitch. Swift also admitted during cross-examination from Jackson Jr.’s lawyer Jeffrey Saffold that she struck Jackson Jr. during the encounter and grabbed onto his pants leg and refused to let go as he walked away.
Saffold maintained during the two days of testimony that Jackson Jr. acted in self-defense.
“These were two people who were engaging in assaultive behavior,” Saffold said after the Wednesday plea. “Frank regrets that he didn’t get away.”
Diane Russell, who is the co-chief of the criminal division in O’Malley’s office, said Wednesday that Saffold had asked prosecutors for a plea bargain on Tuesday. The office agreed to the plea deal after evaluating testimony from key witnesses, including the woman who said Jackson attacked her.
“We were concerned that based on the testimony, we could not meet the elements of felonious assault,” Russell said. “We felt this is a fair and equitable resolution to this case and we are happy that Mr. Jackson took responsibility for his actions in this case.”
Jackson Jr. originally faced up to eight years in prison had he been convicted of the felony charges and would have carried a felony conviction for the rest of his life. Saffold told reporters that Wednesday’s plea deal reflected the evidence, and allowed Jackson Jr. to avoid both prison and a felony conviction.
“You have to advise your client to take that deal,” Saffold told reporters. “It’s just too risky otherwise.”
Saffold reiterated on Wednesday his accusation that O’Malley’s office over-charged Jackson Jr. based on public pressure. O’Malley’s office pursued charges against Jackson Jr. after a police investigation into a deadly shooting outside a West Side barbershop led homicide detectives to tow Jackson Jr.’s truck from the mayor’s home in the city’s Central Neighborhood.
A car registered in Jackson Jr.’s name that witnesses described as fleeing the scene of the shooting was later found abandoned and having been set on fire, police said. Jackson Jr. has not been charged with any crime.
Saffold declined to say who he felt pressured O’Malley’s office to charge Jackson Jr.
“This is a terrible case that would have never have been brought were it not for who his grandfather is,” Saffold said. “It’s a shame we had to go through all of this.”
Russell denied those accusations.
“We charge based on the evidence that was before us at the time,” she said. “Things unfold as they do and you make changes or evaluations based on that, and that’s what we did in this case.”
Cleveland.com chronicled several anomalies that occurred during the investigations involving Jackson Jr., and the mayor himself faced several questions about his involvement in the cases. He sought to bat-down those questions in a widely criticized video released through City Hall that criticized “the media” and edited portions of an interview with a cleveland.com reporter.
Mayor Jackson and police officials have denied acting improperly.