CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County prosecutors had little to say Monday about a plan by a group of community leaders to sidestep their office and file affidavits seeking charges against two Cleveland police officers involved in the November killing of 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
Rather than wait for the county prosecutor’s office to present evidence of the shooting to a grand jury — a process that could take weeks — the group plans to use an obscure state law that allows anyone with knowledge of the facts of a case to formally ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant, according to the New York Times.
The group is seeking charges including aggravated murder and manslaughter.
“Here we are taking some control of the process as citizens,” Tamir’s family’s attorney, Walter Madison, told The New York Times. “We are going to participate without even changing the law.”
The move comes days after the sheriff’s department completed the investigation into the Nov. 22 shooting outside Cudell Recreation Center, when officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir less than two seconds after his partner Frank Garmback pulled up a cruiser to a gazebo beside the boy.
Police officials said the boy ignored orders and officers believed the boy was reaching for his waistband, where what turned out to be an airsoft-type gun was tucked.
Surveillance cameras outside the recreation center recorded the shooting.
“We have the video, and having witnessed it, you can see that it took two seconds for the officers to shoot a 12-year-old boy who showed no malicious intent or aggressive behavior. There is certainly reasonable suspicion that a crime was committed,” The Rev. Jawanza K. Colvin, of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, told The New York Times.
Should the group succeed, the case would still eventually be sent to a grand jury. Ohio’s constitution guarantees a person charged with a felony the right to have their evidence heard by a grand jury, which could hand up an indictment charging the officers, or decline to indict them.
“Once the investigation is complete — and in the death of Tamir Rice, it is not at this time — all evidence and expert analysis will be presented to the grand jury.” prosecutor’s spokesman Joe Frolik said. “The grand jury in Cuyahoga County, by the policy of the County Prosecutor’s Office, ultimately makes the charging decision in all fatal use of deadly force cases that involve law enforcement officers.”
County Prosecutor Tim McGinty used the grand jury process to present evidence to a grand jury in connection with the November 2012 high-speed police chase that ended with 13 officers firing 137 shots at Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were unarmed.
Russell and Williams were killed, and police officer Michael Brelo was indicted on two counts of voluntary manslaughter. Judge John O’Donnell found Brelo not guilty May 23, touching off a day of tense demonstrations that ended with 71 protesters arrested.
Both Colvin and Rhonda Y. Williams, a history professor at Case Western Reserve University, told the Times they planned to sign the affidavits seeking charges against Loehmann and Garmback.
“Let’s get it into the courts and get it before the people, and let’s get what is happening in the investigation out there to the community,” she told the Times. “And let’s give the defendants their rights to defend themselves, and let’s have a criminal justice system that works.”
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/06/community_group_seeks_charges.html
“… the group plans to use an obscure state law that allows anyone with knowledge of the facts of a case to formally ask a judge to issue an arrest warrant, according to the New York Times.”
Formally ask? What, like begging on your knees?
Slaves beg.
“Tamir’s family’s attorney, Walter Madison, told The New York Times. “We are going to participate without even changing the law.”
They’re COUNTING ON IT, you poor, deluded fools. How else are they going to extract all those exorbitant court ‘costs’ & ‘fees’?
You can throw all the (fiat) ‘money’ at them you want. In the end, you’ll lose, because they’re not even bothering to be subtle about their treason anymore.