Brandon King will stay out of prison after a jury found him guilty of making money off of the East Cleveland city government that he led as mayor.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Hollie Gallagher sentenced King to three years of probation and 100 hours of community service on Wednesday. She also ordered him to pay $9,658 in fines and reimburse the Ohio Ethics Commission $18,194.99. King is also barred from serving in public office.
The sentence was a win for King and a blow to Cuyahoga County prosecutors, who had sought prison time for the suspended East Cleveland mayor.
Gallagher told King that he “never, ever” should have had a personal interest in a company that dealt with his own city government.
“Quite frankly, Mr. King, you should have known better and you did know better,” she said.
Afterward, King and his supporters circled up, held hands and prayed in the courtroom. In a brief statement to news reporters, he thanked the judge and his attorney.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Andrew Rogalski told reporters that he respected the judge’s decision. King’s attorney, Charles Tyler Sr., called Gallagher’s sentence “appropriate” but said his client still plans to appeal.
King was suspended from office after his indictment, and a probate court judge appointed Sandra Morgan to serve as acting mayor. Her succession is now tied up in a different legal fight, as Council President Lateek Shabazz seeks an appeals court order confirming him as mayor.
Gallagher sentenced former East Cleveland Council Member Ernest Smith to probation on Tuesday in a related court case involving his use of a city vehicle.
At the center of Brandon King’s case: an East Cleveland office building
A jury convicted King in late May on charges that he improperly benefitted from city payments to companies that he and his family owned. One company leased office space to a domestic violence program funded with state grant dollars that passed through city coffers. Another company sold the city cleaning supplies.
Prosecutors said that King broke the law when he vetoed a City Council budget defunding the line item for the domestic violence program’s rent. When council overrode the veto, the city paid the rent anyway, they said.
Gallagher said King did not have to pay restitution to the city government because East Cleveland received what it paid for: office space and supplies. She said that it was “disingenuous” for prosecutors to argue that East Cleveland lost money. Prosecutors hadn’t proven that the domestic violence program could have moved to a different space, she said.
“Were they going to sit outside and have a tent?” Gallagher asked at one point. “Come on.”
The specifics of the financing for the domestic violence program’s office space may become an issue in King’s appeal.
“We just believe that the jury didn’t get it right,” Tyler told reporters when asked about the upcoming appeal. “There was testimony given by witnesses that made very clear that that grant didn’t belong to the city.”
