Oops! Hemmons and McCollough just got their notice of disciplinary rule violations councilors Gowdy, Stevenson and Martin filed against them!

CLEVELAND, OH – They should have seen the writing on the wall and knew this day was coming.  Willa Hemmons and Heather McCollough have been operating like rogue public officials with no oaths of office appeasing Richmond Heights resident Brandon King instead of advising the officers of the municipal corporation of East Cleveland to discharge only their official duties.

The weapons Hemmons and McCollough formed against Councilwoman Juanita Gowdy have failed.  Both were advised by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association that a complaint has been filed against them.  McCollough should have learned Proverbs 2:20.  “So you will walk in the way of good men And keep to the paths of the righteous.”  Oops there it is!

A majority of three members of East Cleveland city council (Gowdy, Korean Stevenson, Nathaniel Martin) filed a complaint against the derelict duo and want their law licenses suspended.  For the good of the public interest the suspensions should be permanent.  Neither is fit to practice law.

Instead of following the law both Willa Hemmons and Heather McCullough followed Richmond Heights resident Brandon King and the money he was paying them to avoid discharging the official duties of the public offices they usurped.

Hemmons was contracted in January 2014 to discharge the duties of a “municipal director of law” pursuant to the mandates of the Revised Code of Ohio.  Law directors for municipal corporations are required to be electors.  She resides in Beachwood and not East Cleveland.

Law directors are also required to be administered oaths of office, post bonds and advise every officer and employee to discharge only the duties of public offices as they are authorized by Ohio’s general laws and its Constitution.   Pursuant to Section 733.57 of the Revised Code of Ohio, it was Hemmons and McCullough’s duties to ensure that even the no-bid contractors King’s been awarding contracts perform every public duty associated with the receipt of it.

Judge William Dawson since 2014 has allowed a private attorney to prosecute cases in the city’s municipal court in violation of R.C. 2938.13 despite knowing that Willa Hemmons was not administered an oath of office to discharge the duties of a director of law. 10 days after this contract was signed Hemmons should have resigned and advised council to declare the public office she had vacated … forfeited. 

They don’t participate in schemes like McCollough to remove a member of council through recall by notarizing petitions Che Gadison submitted to her in resident Kelly Bright’s name.  They don’t join council meetings like Hemmons did and declare the the mayor can preside over it for the council president; and that she is dually-authorized to serve as his appointed clerk of the council.

They don’t present charges against American citizens that have been filed against them by private individuals impersonating law enforcement officers with no oaths, no civil service testing and no Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy credentials.  Full-time prosecuting attorneys like McCullough don’t represent private criminal cases, secretly, on the side.  The Supreme Court of Ohio told EJBNEWS it was McCullough’s duty to update her status to show she was working as a government prosecutor instead of as a private lawyer.

The sham council meeting Richmond Heights resident Brandon King presided over in place of the president of council was a big “no no” for a judge. So was the $17,000 bank robbery.  Fat meat is greasy.  When advised by your elders to “get right” … “get right.”  CANON 4:  A Judge Shall Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in all of the Judge’s Activities (A) Positions of Influence. A judge shall not allow family, social, political, or other relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment. A judge shall not lend the prestige of judicial office to advance the private interests of the judge or others and shall not convey or permit others to convey the impression that they are in a special position to influence the judge. A judge shall not testify voluntarily as a character witness.  (C) Appearances and Appointments. (1) A judge shall not appear at a public hearing before or otherwise consult with an executive or legislative body or official except on matters concerning the law, the legal system, or the administration of justice or except when acting pro se in a matter involving the judge or the judge’s interests.

Hemmons described U.S. District Court Judge James Gwin as “mad” when he admonished her for representing ex-East Cleveland employees Ralph Spotts and David Hicks instead of protecting and indemnifying the city from their misconduct in the $50 million civil complaint she lost.  It will be interesting to see her flippant responses to the Certified Grievance Committee and the Disciplinary Counsel as the complaint proceeds.

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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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