Destini Bronaugh (rt) and and her mother, Tina Bronaugh

Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin Murray

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson

From the Metro Desk of the Kathy Wray Coleman Online News Blog.Com and Cleveland Urban News.Com(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com)

The mother of a Cleveland Collinwood High School graduate being maliciously prosecuted by the City of Cleveland in retaliation for a peaceful student protest at the school last May around school closings and teacher layoffs is firing the girl's attorney saying he filed a brief with the judge hearing the case that supports the prosecution in an alleged effort to get her illegally convicted. And grassroots activists, including The Imperial Women, are behind the mother, and her maliciously prosecuted Black daughter.

"I paid Attorney Anthony Jordan to represent my innocent daughter Destini Bronaugh, and he instead wrote a brief under the guise of seeking to dismiss the charges that actually supports the prosecution and says my daughter is guilty," said Tina Bronaugh, 42, Destini Bronaugh's mother. "He is bold and dangerous and in addition to firing him we will take him to the bar and hope that he will suspended from the practice of law so that he cannot hurt other innocent people." 

Destini Bronaugh, 19, who graduated last summer from Cleveland's Collinwood High School, is facing misdemeanor charges of obstruction of official business and resisting arrest. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The incident, including Bronaugh's brutal arrest at the protest by Cleveland Fifth District police officers, was caught on video. It has gotten some 20,000 hits on youtube.com under the title "Cleveland Police Brutalize Student Protesters."

Police went to the protest at the school on May 13 of  last year allegedly to harass the protesting students per the directives of higher ups, arresting Bronaugh's younger sister for an alleged curfew violation for the protest, and then targeting Bronaugh when she complained. 

A Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Magistrate last year dismissed charges against Bronaugh's younger sister because state law mandates that students receive a citation before any arrest on a charge of a curfew violation. 

Destini Bronaugh was indicted by a Cuyahoga County Grand Jury last year on a felony charge of assault against police and resisting arrest around the protest last year, but Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason dismissed the charges as lacking merit, only for Cleveland Law Director Robert Triozzi to usurp the role of Cleveland Chief Prosecutor Victor Perez to bring the pending charges on behalf of the City of Cleveland. Both Triozzi and Perez are appointments by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.

The case is being heard by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lynn McLaughlin Murray, who was handpicked to preside over it because she is the chosen judge to hear police and other law enforcement cases for her friend the mayor.

At issue is a motion to dismiss the charges that Jordan filed May 9 where he actually accuses his own client of being guilty of obstruction of official business, activity that is indicative of the political climate around the highly public controversy.

Though the video reveals that Destini Bronaugh merely hugged her younger sister in fear when police illegally arrested her claiming a daytime curfew violation, though not giving her the previous citation required by state law, Jordan's brief says that Destini Bronaugh was instead interfering and obstructing official business.

"Destini was interfering with [her sister's] arrest," the brief reads in part. 

Kathy Wray Coleman, a leader of The Imperial Women, said that McLaughlin Murray should remove Jordan as counsel of record for Destini Bronaugh and should also recommend that he is investigated by the Ohio Supreme Court's Office of Disciplinary Counsel for potential ethical violations.

"We cannot allow Black attorneys to undermine their clients to appease malicious prosecutors seeking to criminalize innocent Black children for free speech activities protected under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," said Coleman "We support Ms. Bronaugh's firing of him and we want him disbarred." 

Coleman said that McLaughlin Murray should be investigated too, since she could be behind Jordan's unethical activity.

"Judge McLaughlin Murray was handpicked for the case to harass Destini Bronaugh for Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, who has endorsed her for the Nov. election in her efforts to hold onto her seat, and he is the main problem because he started this whole thing with corrupt and racist Law Director Robert Triozzi, who brought the charges," said Coleman. "A Black mayor wanting to harm innocent Black children for a peaceful student protest must have some self hatred problems."

Jordan was chief prosecutor under former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, whom Jackson ousted in 2005, followed by his reelection in 2009.

McLaughlin Murray has scheduled a hearing in the case today at 2 pm at the Justice Center in courtroom 12A. Click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpmjnDW-Ys8  to see the video of the May 13, 2010 protest at Collinwood High School and the arrest of Destini Bronaugh and her sister.