Court: Judge can hear charges facing police in 137-shot case

A judge in the city where two unarmed blacks died in a 137-shot barrage of Cleveland police gunfire can hear dereliction of duty charges against five police supervisors accused of failing to control a highspeed chase involving more than 100 officers, the state’s highest court ruled Thursday.

The ruling addresses only where the case can be heard and not the substance of the misdemeanor charges against the supervisors.

The supervisors’ attorneys filed an appeal in July 2015 that said the case should be tried in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, where charges were originally filed. The 8th District Court of Appeals agreed and issued an order prohibiting East Cleveland Municipal Judge William Dawson from hearing the case after county prosecutors filed identical charges in that city.

The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling says the supervisors have legal remedies through appeals of Dawson’s decisions in the case.

A court employee said Dawson was on the bench Thursday morning and wasn’t available for comment.

Susan Gragel, the attorney who wrote the appeal on behalf of the supervisors, said that while she respects the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Eighth District’s prohibition order correctly addressed the fact that charges were filed in East Cleveland while the same charges were pending in county court.

The supervisors — Randolph Dailey, Patricia Coleman, Michael Donegan, Jason Edens and Paul Wilson — were originally indicted by a Cuyahoga County grand jury in May 2014 for failing to control the 22-mile chase that led to Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams being killed in the parking lot of an East Cleveland middle school.

Also indicted was Patrolman Michael Brelo, one of 13 officers who shot at the car, on voluntary manslaughter charges. Brelo fired 49 times, including a final 15-round volley from the hood of the car.