East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King was likely spared last week from an unusual court case that sought his removal from office.
King has wrangled with a motivated group of local adversaries in numerous legal fights over the last few years. This one took place in Cuyahoga County Probate Court – which most people know as the court that handles inheritance issues and marriage licenses.
But a 1977 state law allows citizens to go to probate court with complaints against their public officials, too. A jury weighs the evidence and decides whether to kick the officials out of their jobs.
The complaint against King accused him of failing to turn financial records over to City Council, misspending taxpayer resources and a host of other deeds labeled “misfeasance and malfeasance in office.”
The lead plaintiff is Lateek Shabazz, an East Cleveland council member who is facing a misdemeanor charge filed by the mayor.
King had not yet laid out his defense against those claims. But in a court filing, Law Director Willa Hemmons pointed out that the mayor had won reelection and survived two recalls. The lawsuit, she wrote, was an “unconscionable effort to obviate the will of the people and unlawfully reverse prior decisions.”
To make matters more complicated, state code put the city’s law director in charge of prosecuting the case against King. Because Hemmons was tied up in the legal battle herself, Judge Laura J. Gallagher appointed the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office to do the job.
Last Monday, the prosecutor’s office moved to put an end to the whole affair and dismiss the case.
“Based on the quality of evidence given to the Prosecutor’s Office, there was serious doubt about whether the case against Mayor King could be proven by clear and convincing evidence,” prosecutor’s office spokesperson Alexandria Bauer told Signal Cleveland in an email.
King may be out of the probate court woods, but the city he leads has not escaped the wilderness. East Cleveland has long been mired in fiscal emergency. A financial forecast drafted last year projected a $30 million deficit within five years, according to a report issued this month by the Ohio Office of Budget and Management.
That state report said East Cleveland’s financial health was “largely dependent” on resolving legal disputes, fixing accounting practices and making peace between the mayor and City Council.
In dry language, the report said that East Cleveland has a long way to travel down the tunnel before it reaches the light: “It is not anticipated the city will be released from fiscal emergency in the upcoming year.”
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