EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Defense attorneys for Cleveland police supervisors charged in a 2012 chase that ended in a deadly shooting asked authorities to review an East Cleveland law director's offer to drop the charges in exchange for $5,000 in restitution.
Attorneys Henry Hilow and Kevin Spellacy, who represent two of the five supervisors charged in the case, contend that East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons acted improperly when she offered to drop dereliction-of-duty charges against the five supervisors charged in the case if they paid the restitution.
Hilow and Spellacy sent letters to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office and other authorities to ask them to review the matter "for any potential criminal conduct and/or prosecutorial misconduct."
"Counsel has informed Ms. Hemmons that not only does the charge of dereliction of duty fail on its merits, it would be illegal to acquiesce to the city's offer," Hilow said in a letter dated April 5. "Ms. Hemmons had no itemized statement for restitution nor any legal authority to support her decision."
When the defense attorneys rejected the offer, Hemmons asked them to make a counteroffer and said "justice has a price," Hilow said in the letter, which was provided to cleveland.com.
The letter can be read at the bottom of this post.
Hemmons said Thursday that she has not read the letters. She rejected the suggestion that she did anything wrong and said she has made similar offers to defendants throughout her career.
The $5,000 in restitution would have paid for police overtime and other costs associated with the case, she said.
She also said she is not concerned by the letters sent by Hilow and Spellacy.
"It's their First Amendment right to send a letter to anyone," she said.
Ohio Attorney General's Office spokesman Dan Tierney said Thursday that neither the Special Prosecutions Section nor the Bureau of Criminal Investigation has received the letter or a request to review Hemmons' offer.
A Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The supervisors are charged with dereliction of duty, a first-degree misdemeanor, in the Nov. 29, 2012 chase that began at the Justice Center in Cleveland and ended in the parking lot outside Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland. They are not among the 13 police officers who fired 137 shots at the end of the chase, killing Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams.
Supervisors Michael Donegan, 44, of Cleveland; Patricia Coleman, 50, of Brooklyn; Jason Edens, 44, of Avon; Paul Wilson, 51, of Cleveland; and Randolph Dailey, 46, of North Ridgeville all pleaded not guilty during their arraignments Thursday in East Cleveland Municipal Court.
The case moved to East Cleveland in 2015 after then-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty's office dropped misdemeanor charges against the supervisors. East Cleveland prosecutors then filed charges in that city.
The move to East Cleveland drew criticism from the supervisors' attorneys, who accused McGinty of shopping for a more favorable pool of jurors. McGinty maintained the suburb was the appropriate location to try the case because the chase ended in East Cleveland.
The officers appealed the move all the way up to the Ohio Supreme Court, which ruled last year the trial could be held in East Cleveland.
Michael Brelo was the only police officer to be charged in connection with the shooting deaths of Russell and Williams. He was acquitted in May 2015 of voluntary manslaughter.
The five supervisors were called to testify during Brelo's trial, but they invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.
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