Assistant East Cleveland prosecuting attorney has committed so many criminal acts she may have finally regained sanity when she leaked a video of Larry McDonald asking for drugs and threatening to kill a cop. She should meet with the FBI, immediately, to report in detail all the felony offenses she's witnessed Brandon King, Michael Smedley, Willa Hemmons, Scott Gardner and other employees engaging in under the color of law.

East Cleveland officials backing away from prosecuting council vice prez for trafficking strippers

Twice-convicted tax fraud and now facing criminal charges for impersonating a peace officer, criminal investigation “obstructor” Scott Gardner is a private citizen leading East Cleveland’s police department. Gardner admitted to EJBNEWS that cops didn’t send information about possible underaged strippers being transported across state lines to the county prosecutor or FBI.

EAST CLEVELAND, OH – Prosecuting attorney Heather McCollough told an audience on the former mayor of East Cleveland’s Facebook page she’s taken no steps to pursue felony charges againt Council Vice President Ernest Smith for hosting a “back to school” fundraiser with underaged strippers in a bar the state closed. 

McCollough was responding to the ex-mayor’s criticism of her claim that “police” had presented felony charges to Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney Michael O’Malley and he refused to prosecute him.   

EJBNEWS contacted East Cleveland detective Scott Gardner to confirm McCollough’s claim that felony charges were submitted to O’Malley.  When detective Joseph Marche transferred this journalist’s call to Gardner his voice mail picked up.  EJBNEWS called back and another detective stated that Gardner had left to meet with Chief of Police Michael Cardilli.  [NOTE: This journalist and EJBNEWS publisher is East Cleveland’s former mayor.  He suspended Gardner twice for insubordination.  He once managed, hired, fired, promoted or refused to promote individuals named or affiliated with this story.]

 O’Malley’s office was contacted and a message was  left with Carl Sullivan’s voice mail seeking confirmation about McCullough’s allegation that the prosecuting attorney refused a police request for felony charges against East Cleveland’s council vice president.  Sullivan did not respond.

After Ohio’s liquor control board stripped the old Club Dew Drop’s operators of their permit, council vice president Ernest Smith convinced the building’s owner to let him house his “Oppressed Peoples Nation” headquarters out of it. Smith admits on his social media page that he held “fundraisers” in the plural at the facility.

Smith was arrested by East Cleveland police on September 10, 2019 at a location that once housed a bar called Club Dew Drop.  In a video he shared on his Facebook page Smith told his family and friends they knew he hosted fundraisers at the “closed bar” to help the children.  The September 10, 2019 event was just another of his fundraisers.

According to the city hall source, the school fundraising event that caused East Cleveland police to raid the closed bar Smith had possession of included strippers from Michigan who didn’t know he was an elected official.  They only knew him as “Dolla Bill” as a name of the character the late comedian Bernie Mac performed in “Playa’s Club.”

This is the image of a young woman Ernest Smith transported across state lines from Michigan.

Smith in his social media video claimed he was “set up” by the city’s police but offered no proof to back his allegation.  The politician, himself, had used the influence of the public office he held to pressure city workers and officials into asking the state liquor control board to strip the operator of a permit after a parking lot shooting occurred there.

Cuyahoga County Prosecuting Attorney Michael O’Malley has not generated criminal charges against Ernest Smith for allegedly trafficking underaged strippers from MIchigan to East Cleveland to strip for a “back to school” fundraiser at a bar the state closed.

Smith’s sole local offense from McCullough is a charge for selling liquor without a permit.  Police confiscated weapons and drugs along with the alcohol.  The city hall source told EJBNEWS they took statements from strippers as young as 17 who said Smith brought them across state lines for sexual purposes.

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Eric Jonathan Brewer

Cleveland's most influential journalist and East Cleveland's most successful mayor is an East Saint Louis, Illinois native whose father led the city's petition drive in 1969 to elect the first black mayor in 1971. Eric is an old-school investigative reporter whose 40-year body of editorial work has been demonstrably effective. No local journalist is feared or respected more.

Trained in newspaper publishing by the legendary Call & Post Publisher William Otis Walker in 1978 when it was the nation's 5th largest Black-owned publication, Eric has published and edited 13 local, regional and statewide publications across Ohio. Adding to his publishing and reporting resume is Eric's career in government. Eric served as the city's highest paid part-time Special Assistant to ex-Cleveland Mayor Michael R. White. He served as Chief of Staff to ex-East Cleveland Mayor Emmanuel Onunwor; and Chief of Communications to the late George James in his capacity as the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority's first Black executive director. Eric was appointed to serve as a member of the state's Financial Planning & Supervision Commission to guide the East Cleveland school district out of fiscal emergency and $20 million deficit. Former U.S. HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson told Eric in his D.C. office he was the only mayor in the nation simultaneously-managing a municipal block grant program. Eric wrote the city's $2.2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant application. A HUD Inspector General audit of his management of the block grant program resulted in "zero" audit findings.

As a newspaper publisher, Eric has used his insider's detailed knowledge of government and his publications to lead the FBI and state prosecutors to investigations that resulted in criminal prosecutions of well-known elected officials in Ohio; and have helped realign Cleveland's political landscape with the defeat of candidates and issues he's exposed. Eric's stories led to the indictments of the late Governor George Voinovich's brother, Paul Voinovich of the V Group, and four associates. He asked the FBI to investigate the mayor he'd served as chief of staff for public corruption; and testified in three federal trials for the prosecution. He forced former Cuyahoga County Coroner Dr. Elizabeth Balraj to admit her investigations of police killings were fraudulent; and to issue notices to local police that her investigators would control police killing investigations. Eric's current work has resulted in Cuyahoga County Judge John Russo accepting the criminal complaint he guided an activist to file against 24 civil rights-violating police officers in the city he once led for operating without valid peace officer credentials. USA Today reporters picked up on Eric's police credentials reporting from his social media page and made it national.

Eric is the author of of his first book, "Fight Police License Plate Spying," which examines the FBI and local police misuse of the National Crime Information Center criminal records history database. An accomplished trumpet player and singer whose friendship with Duke Fakir of the Four Tops resulted in his singing the show's closing song, "Can't Help Myself": Curtis Sliwa of New York's Guardian Angels counts Eric among his founding chapter leaders from the early 1980's role as an Ohio organizer of over 300 volunteer crime fighters in Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown, Ohio. For his work as a young man Eric was recognized by Cleveland's Urban League as it's 1983 Young Man of the Year.

Known in Cleveland for his encyclopedic knowledge of government and history, and intimately-connected with the region's players, every local major media outlet in Cleveland has picked up on one of Eric's stories since 1979. There is no mainstream newspaper, television or radio outlet in Cleveland that does not include an interview with Eric Jonathan Brewer in its archives over the past 40 years.

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