CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An Ohio appeals court ruled that the misdemeanor cases against the five Cleveland police supervisors charged in a chase that ended in the deaths of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell cannot proceed in East Cleveland.
The 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals ruled the dismissal of the case in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas was invalid. The case should never have been transferred to East Cleveland Municipal Court, a majority of the three-judge panel ruled.
The officers were originally charged in common pleas court, but the case was moved to East Cleveland in July at the request of Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty. The prosecutors dropped the charges in common pleas court once the case was moved.
In an opinion issued Wednesday, Appeals Court Judge Frank D. Celebrezze Jr. said that the case must be tried in the court where the supervisors were originally charged, and that the dismissal of the original charges was invalid.
McGinty pursued manslaughter charges against patrolman Michael Brelo, but Judge John P. O'Donnell acquitted Brelo on May 23.
Randolph Dailey, Michael Donegan, Patricia Coleman, Jason Edans and Paul Wilson were also charged with misdemeanors, but the defendants asked to split their cases from Brelo's.
After Brelo's acquittal, McGinty sought a dismissal of the misdemeanor case and filed the same misdemeanor charges in East Cleveland Municipal Court.
The union representing Cleveland's rank and file police officers criticized McGinty's motion to have the officers tried in East Cleveland as an attempt to draw a more favorable jury.