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Ohio Officer Charged in 137-Round Shooting Wants Bench Trial

Published

11 years ago

March 24, 2015

In this Dec. 17, 2014, file photo, police ffficer Michael Brelo adjusts his tie before court proceedings in Cleveland. A trial date has been set for Brelo, a Cleveland police officer accused of firing the final rounds of a 137-shot barrage that killed two unarmed civilians inside a car in November 2012. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

MARK GILLISPIE, Associated Press

CLEVELAND (AP) — Allowing a white police officer to have a judge decide his fate for his role in a 137-bullet shooting that killed two unarmed black suspects would be unfair because it excludes blacks from being jurors, prosecutors argued in a motion filed on Monday.

Attorneys for Michael Brelo on Sunday filed a motion asking for a bench trial for his two counts of voluntary manslaughter. Brelo, who was among more than a dozen officers, is accused of firing the final 15 rounds of that barrage into the windshield of a car after a high-speed chase in November 2012. The driver, Timothy Russell, and his passenger, Malissa Williams, were each shot more than 20 times.

Prosecutors said it would be an “injustice” to have a bench trial, noting that all 13 officers who fired into the car that night are white. Brelo was the only officer charged because prosecutors said he waited until after the car had stopped and Russell and Williams were no longer a threat to fire the last of his 49 rounds that night.

Excluding blacks from deciding Brelo’s charges “works against the interest of justice,” prosecutors said.

“There is nothing in Ohio law that would prohibit this court from declining Brelo’s jury waiver,” prosecutors wrote.

Brelo’s attorneys disagreed. Attorney Tom Shaughnessy told Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John O’Donnell that the state constitution guarantees a criminal defendant’s right to a bench trial “regardless of race or religion or standing in the community.”

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said after the hearing that Ohio law states that a judge may accept a defendant’s waiver of a jury but doesn’t have to.

“This is an attempt to end-run African-American participation in a trial about the death of two unarmed African Americans, and we don’t think Judge O’Donnell has to go along,” spokesman Joe Frolik said.

The judge said he would rule on prosecutors’ motion later this week. Brelo’s trial is scheduled to start April 6.

The judge ruled last week that one of Brelo’s attorneys, Patrick D’Angelo, should not be disqualified and removed from Brelo’s defense team. Prosecutors had argued that D’Angelo had a conflict of interest because, as attorney for a Cleveland police union, he represented 68 patrol officers and dispatchers who were interviewed by criminal investigators, including some who testified before a grand jury.

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

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March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.