By Laura Johnston, The Plain Dealer
October 29, 2009, 12:22PM
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County commissioners today approved a revised version of an internal report that delved into the financial impact of the federal corruption investigation.
But first, the county removed eight names from a list of "individuals in question" prepared by the auditor's office.
That was after two prominent Cleveland attorneys attacked the report -- compiled by former Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Blake and released last week -- that listed them, as well as individuals who have pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges or have been named in federal search warrants.
The attorneys' names appeared in a story published earlier this year in the Plain Dealer, in which both were asked about search warrants that had been served.
A footnote was added to the report: "The Auditor’s Office conducted a broad review of properties of owners who were mentioned in any way in one or more of the foregoing sources, i.e., articles appearing in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, federal grand jury subpoenas and FBI search warrants, or whose owners were mentioned in those same sources."
The attorneys' names were removed, along with people uninvolved in the corruption investigation, such as a couple whose last name is the same as a Plain Dealer reporter's.
Blake's 76-page report compiled information from internal investigations by seven county departments, interviews with 22 county employees, several contractors, and nearly 400,000 pages of e-mails and attachments.
The report concludes that with a $1.5 billion budget, any money lost through corruption-related crimes does not affect the county’s overall financial health. It should not affect the county's ability to borrow money, the report said.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach holds swearing-in ceremony at Cleveland school
By Peter Krouse, The Plain Dealer
October 26, 2009, 1:46PM
October 26, 2009, 1:46PM
Photo by Lisa DeJong / The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Fighting public corruption and upholding civil rights will be among Steven Dettelbach's priorities as the new U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Dettelbach, 43, was privately sworn in as U.S. attorney in September but chose Martin Luther King Jr. High School at East 71st Street and Hough Avenue in Cleveland for a public ceremony this morning. U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown administered the oath of office. Dettelbach selected the school because of its emphasis on law and municipal careers. He plans to begin an internship program between his office and the school.
Among the morning's speakers was 16-year-old sophomore Dontea Gresham, who proclaimed his intention to one day run for U.S. president. Dontea reminded the few hundred invited guests of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous admonition, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Dettelbach comes to his new job with extensive civil rights experience, having served in the criminal section of the Justice Department's civil rights division. One noteworthy case he prosecuted involved Thai immigrants brought illegally to the United States and enslaved in a southern California sweatshop. Dettelbach will serve as chairman of the subcommittee on civil rights for the U.S. Attorney General's advisory committee.
As a former federal prosecutor in Cleveland, Dettelbach helped prosecute Nate Gray, a close friend to former Cleveland Mayor Michael White. Gray was convicted of paying bribes to public officials in several cities, including former East Cleveland Mayor Emanuel Onunwor. Dettelbach has been recused from his office's ongoing probe of public corruption in Cuyahoga County because his former firm, Baker & Hostetler, represented parties involved in the investigation. His pick for first assistant U.S. Attorney, Carol Rendon, will likely have to do the same when she comes on board because of her representation of probe targets at her firm. In his speech, Dettelbach promised to root out public corruption to ensure taxpayer money is spent "on the best product, not someone's best friend."
While there were plenty of glowing comments about Dettelbach, friend and former federal prosecutor Craig Morford offered up some lighter insight. He called Dettelbach "a bit of a goofball" who took his job seriously, but not himself. He recalled a story from Dettelbach's former Harvard Law School roommate who said Dettelbach once recorded the sound of a vacuum cleaner to play while going to bed because the white noise helped him sleep.
Dettelbach went to Dartmouth College before entering Harvard Law School, where he became friends with another future lawyer named Barack Obama. Dettelbach did not stay in touch with Obama over the years, but he did become active in his presidential campaign.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sentencing Errors Might Spring Inmates
More than 14,000 ex-prisoners also might be affected
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 3:04 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Thousands of ex-offenders could be released from state supervision and more than 200 current inmates might get out of Ohio prisons early because of a sentencing glitch. Many of the affected current and former inmates committed felonies -- and some are sex offenders, an official said.
Ohio prisons director Terry Collins said yesterday that rulings in three related lawsuits handed down by the Ohio Supreme Court this year are forcing the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to review more than 14,000 other cases. The glitch affects only offenders sentenced after the state's 1996 "truth-in-sentencing law" took effect.
"If the sentencing order didn't say they had mandatory supervision and the number of years, the order was void," Collins said. The judges' sentencing oversight was cited in three specific cases and expanded, by virtue of the Supreme Court rulings, to cover thousands of similar cases.
The ruling directly affects three groups: 14,816 former prisoners sentenced to "post-release control" (the post-1996 successor to parole); more than 208 inmates sent back to prison for violating post-release control rules, and an undetermined number of inmates currently in prison. Collins said he didn't know the number of cases affected, or how many have sentencing problems. "My concern is that we may well have to take some people off supervision by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority," he said. "We would no longer have the ability to supervise them from a legal perspective."
Agency officials are in contact with common pleas judges statewide. A telephone hot line has been set up to help schedule re-sentencing hearings, by teleconference when possible.
In addition, the agency's victim-services department is contacting crime victims and family members to inform them that offenders who they thought were under state supervision might not be supervised for much longer. "I'm always concerned about the victims of crime," Collins added. "Every time something happens with one of these cases, it opens up memories again."
In a related development, an advocacy group representing prisoners and their families demonstrated yesterday outside the prison system's central offices, 770 W. Broad St., seeking release of inmates incarcerated under pre-1996 sentencing laws.
CURE-Ohio said that many of the 4,000 old-law prisoners who are eligible for parole should be released because many are serving longer terms than those sentenced for the same crimes under the new law. In addition, that move could save $100 million and help alleviate prison crowding, now at 32 percent over stated capacity, a CURE spokeswoman said.
Prison officials said it's doubtful the savings would be anywhere near $100 million, even if all 4,000 were released.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 3:04 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Thousands of ex-offenders could be released from state supervision and more than 200 current inmates might get out of Ohio prisons early because of a sentencing glitch. Many of the affected current and former inmates committed felonies -- and some are sex offenders, an official said.
Ohio prisons director Terry Collins said yesterday that rulings in three related lawsuits handed down by the Ohio Supreme Court this year are forcing the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to review more than 14,000 other cases. The glitch affects only offenders sentenced after the state's 1996 "truth-in-sentencing law" took effect.
"If the sentencing order didn't say they had mandatory supervision and the number of years, the order was void," Collins said. The judges' sentencing oversight was cited in three specific cases and expanded, by virtue of the Supreme Court rulings, to cover thousands of similar cases.
The ruling directly affects three groups: 14,816 former prisoners sentenced to "post-release control" (the post-1996 successor to parole); more than 208 inmates sent back to prison for violating post-release control rules, and an undetermined number of inmates currently in prison. Collins said he didn't know the number of cases affected, or how many have sentencing problems. "My concern is that we may well have to take some people off supervision by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority," he said. "We would no longer have the ability to supervise them from a legal perspective."
Agency officials are in contact with common pleas judges statewide. A telephone hot line has been set up to help schedule re-sentencing hearings, by teleconference when possible.
In addition, the agency's victim-services department is contacting crime victims and family members to inform them that offenders who they thought were under state supervision might not be supervised for much longer. "I'm always concerned about the victims of crime," Collins added. "Every time something happens with one of these cases, it opens up memories again."
In a related development, an advocacy group representing prisoners and their families demonstrated yesterday outside the prison system's central offices, 770 W. Broad St., seeking release of inmates incarcerated under pre-1996 sentencing laws.
CURE-Ohio said that many of the 4,000 old-law prisoners who are eligible for parole should be released because many are serving longer terms than those sentenced for the same crimes under the new law. In addition, that move could save $100 million and help alleviate prison crowding, now at 32 percent over stated capacity, a CURE spokeswoman said.
Prison officials said it's doubtful the savings would be anywhere near $100 million, even if all 4,000 were released.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
