Cleveland fixes snag that prompted improper fines, jail

City Council CLEVELAND — on Monday approved a series of ordinances to correct problems with the city’s traffic code that caused some people to be improperly fined or jailed.

The ordinances restore penalties that were removed from the traffic code last May and then inadvertently were not replaced.

Still unknown is how many people were caught up in the mistake. Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Municipal Judge Charles Patton announced the discovery of the mistake April 6. Since then the court has been reviewing cases to see how many people may have received improper sentences.

A spokesman for Cleveland Municipal Court said Monday there still was no information available as to how many people may have been fined too much money or jailed improperly.

The ordinances were needed to correct a mistake that caused judges in Cleveland Municipal Court to hand out improper sentences for 11 months to people who violated certain traffic laws.

The problem occurred in May 2016 when the city was updating its traffic code.

City Council approved an ordinance to remove penalties for a series of first-degree misdemeanor traffic offenses as it was reorganizing the traffic code. But the city Law Department failed to submit a second ordinance to move the penalties for those offenses to a different section of the code.

Because the city failed to specify penalties, the city code called for all of the offenses to become minor misdemeanors that carry lesser fines.

Judges in Cleveland Municipal Court, unaware of the mistake, continued to impose traffic fines and sentences as if the offenses were still first-degree misdemeanors, which carry higher fines and in some cases jail time.

Five people were released almost immediately from jail as a precaution.

The clerk of courts staff, meanwhile, began reviewing cases from the last 11 months to try to determine how many other people were fined too much money or jailed improperly.

Since early April, police have been writing citations for the 14 misdemeanors, which range from driving under suspension to fleeing police, under the state’s code, rather than the city code.

The city offenses generally mirror state traffic laws, but the state laws were unaffected when council acted last May.