CLEVELAND, OH – It is not difficult to see how former interim East Cleveland Mayor Sandra Morgan misread Cuyahoga County Probate Court Judge Anthony Russo’s instructions on how long she could remain in office during convicted ex-Mayor Brandon Lee King’s suspension. In a June 1, 2025 response to now Mayor Lateek Shabazz’s Facebook announcement that he’d been administered the oath of office to assume the job King was removed from on his way to prison, Morgan posted, “You are NOT the mayor! The Supreme Court will decide who holds the seat until the election.”
The “until the election” response from Morgan is not in the instructions Russo shared with reporters in his February 28, 2025 announcement of her “interim” appointment. What has been published in media reports about Russo’s appointment of Morgan is that she would serve until one of three events occurred “while he was under suspension” pursuant to Section 3.16(C)(4)(a)(b)(c) of the Ohio Revised Code.
- ‘The suspended Mayor (King) is reinstated to office by an appeal’
- ‘All charges against the suspended Mayor are disposed of by dismissal or by a finding or findings of not guilty’
- ‘A successor Mayor is elected and qualified to serve the next succeeding term of the Mayor’s office’
What was left out of the published reports of Russo’s order is language from Section 3.16(E)(4) affirming that Russo’s order was only applicable while King was under a Supreme Court of Ohio ordered suspension. Section 3.16 of the Ohio Revised Code is captioned “Suspension of local official charged with felony relating to official conduct.”
“For the duration of the public official’s suspension, an interim replacement official shall be appointed by the probate judge of the court of common pleas if the suspended public official is an elected official of a municipal corporation, township, school district, or other political subdivision, to perform the suspended public official’s duties.”
King is not a “suspended mayor” who has been “charged” with the felonies he’s now been convicted of committing. Russo appears to have emphasized the two words “suspended mayor” to make it understood that it applied to a local official under a suspension who is charged with a felony.
On May 29, 2025, King was removed from the office of East Cleveland mayor by conviction and Morgan’s status expired as an “interim mayor” discharging the duties of a suspended local official charged with a felony. The office of mayor was vacant after King’s conviction and Morgan was not authorized by any law to fill a post-conviction vacancy. The vacancy had to be filled pursuant to Section 114 of East Cleveland’s charter.
Shabazz assigned attorney Kenneth Myers to inform Morgan in writing on May 30, 2025 that the suspension was over and the President of Council would fill the vacancy pursuant to Section 114 of home rule East Cleveland’s charter. Morgan was warned that if she continued to discharge duties from a vacant elected office the charter authorized the President of Council to enter, she would be a usurper.
“In the case of death, resignation, removal or long-term absence of the Mayor, the order of succession as Mayor shall be as follows: President of Council …”
Morgan defiantly rejected Myers’ analysis of Section 3.16’s instructions to an interim official a probate judge appointed to discharge the duties of an indicted mayor who was still in office and under suspension. Her responses showed a lack of understanding that the office of mayor was “vacated” by King’s conviction and that the suspended mayor whose duties Russo appointed her to discharge had been removed from office. King was no longer the threat to the city’s treasury that caused three Supreme Court of Ohio appointees to order the ex-mayor’s suspension on January 30, 2025, 112 days after Prosecutor Michael O’Malley requested it on October 10, 2024.
In his May 30, 2025 email to Morgan, Myers alerted her that a person discharging the duties of a mayor from a vacant office the President of Council was preparing to assume would lead to quo warranto action that would label her a usurper. She had no authority to change her status from interim mayor to mayor “until the election,” and long past King’s removal from office. If she continued her removal would be sought from the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals.
As a private citizen usurping an elected office, it would be illegal for Morgan to seek legal support from the city’s law department or legal vendors as King did with the attorney she fired, Willa Mae Hemmons. The unlawful acts Hemmons abused the law director’s office to help King commit were well discussed during his and his fellow convicted ex-elected official, Ernest Smith’s, trial. They’ll be discussed again in the upcoming trial of Michael Smedley and the Al Zubair brothers.
In her statement to the media, Morgan directed false and unfair accusations against Shabazz in her characterization of how he entered the mayor’s office from the council presidency. Nothing she wrote below about his assumption of the mayor’s office is true. Russo is not an appellate court judge. I don’t believe she wrote words so poorly structured. Mansell Baker?
“On June 1, 2025, Council President Lateek Shabazz declared himself Mayor of the city in a coup d’etat. Despite his proclamation, it will be up to the court system to determine if he can rightfully assume the role to replace the interim mayor Sandra Morgan, who was appointed to the role by Judge Anthony Russo, Appellate Court Judge, Cuyahoga County. The appointment of Sandra Morgan was upheld by the Ohio Supreme Court.”
After Myers notified Morgan by email that Shabazz was the rightful holder of the vacant office, both she and Shabazz received separate certification letters from Clerk of Council Stacy White that informed them each of their current statuses on June 1, 2025. Morgan’s letter was delivered to her home by White as EJBNEWS previously reported.
In her official capacity as Clerk of Council, and pursuant to Section 731.42 of the Ohio Revised Code, White “certified” in writing the vacancy that existed in the mayor’s office created by King’s May 29, 2025 conviction. She posted the Clerk of Council’s certification of the vacancy in the mayor’s office at the entrances of city hall. The Clerk of Council certified to Morgan in writing that the duration of King’s suspension had expired and that the President of Council would assume the vacant office of mayor.
White informed Shabazz of the mayor’s office vacancy and informed him he had 10 days to take an oath of office to discharge the mayor’s duties, or the office would be declared vacant by council pursuant to Section 731.49 of the Ohio Revised Code. White shared the certifications that pertained to each official with the other. Both officials received the certification of the vacancy she had posted around city hall. White disseminated her certificate of vacancy and a certificate that the vacancy had been filled after Shabazz was sworn in.
Shabazz stood in front of the mayor’s office door to be administered his oath of office on June 1, 2025 at 5:35 p.m. by Councilor Dr. Patricia Blochowiak. White witnessed the official act in her capacity as the Clerk of Council. The event was recorded by Legacy Communications owner and videographer William Fambrough and witnessed by former deputy Clerk of Council Justyn Anderson. Shabazz’s oath of office is a public record. Fambrough’s recordings are owned by Fambrough and available from him for $20 each. There was no coup d’état.
Shabazz has been patient with Morgan’s usurpation since it’s the second time he’s experienced it during his nearly three years on council. Mark McClain claimed an unlawful right to the Ward 3 council seat to which Shabazz was appointed by council when Smith was recalled in November 2022.
King criminally obstructed council’s affairs with his declaration that Shabazz and Councilor Twon Billings were not “legally recognized” by him. He and Hemmons created fraudulent legislation that carried votes for McClain and Nathaniel Martin that were never recorded in the Clerk of Council’s legislation.
Again, Section 113(A) of East Cleveland’s charter instructs mayors to stay out of council’s affairs, and this was the second time King had criminally obstructed its operations. King and previously obstructed Devin Branch and Kelvin Earby’s appointments with Ernest Smith and Ricky Pitts.
It took nearly a year for the Supreme Court of Ohio to decide that he was the rightful office holder as King ordered employees not to pay his wages. It’s deja vu all over again with Morgan’s usurpation of the mayor’s office and declaration of rights to Shabazz’s office.
Morgan’s credibility as a candidate for East Cleveland mayor diminishes with each day she stubbornly refuses to comply with a charter and ordinances she should have been administered an oath of office to obey and uphold by Russo. She’s gathering petitions asking voters to let her seek the mayor’s office to enforce a home rule city’s charter and ordinances she’s now disobeying.
It’s not a good look for a candidate running behind a scumbag convicted ex-mayor who spent eight years disobeying the very same laws. East Cleveland voters already know what a mayor who violates the charter and ordinances looks like with King, Gary Norton, Jr. and Emmanuel Onunwor. More than three dozen indicted and convicted cops are great examples of lawbreakers under lawbreaking mayors.
Section 114 of home rule East Cleveland’s charter placed Shabazz in the mayor’s office. It’s already done and certified by the Clerk of Council. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections and Ohio Elections Commission have been informed. White had no duty to wait for an order of the court to certify the vacancy in the mayor’s office with King’s conviction or to certify Morgan’s expired interim mayor’s status. They are municipal acts she was required to report.
The deliberate and open acts White and Shabazz engaged in to fill a vacancy created by King’s conviction should not be tainted by Morgan’s ego and false public statements. There was no deception or dishonesty in their acts. There were no violations of a charter provision or a law.
While Morgan is pointing “coup d’etat fingers at Shabazz, she participated on June 2, 2025 in a King-like obstruction of council’s affairs with his puppets, Timothy Austin and Terrie Richardson. The non-reading co-conspirators took a page out of King’s dumbest criminal acts playbook and decided Austin would fill the vacancy in the council presidency caused by Shabazz’s assumption of the vacant mayor’s office. Mayors don’t supervise council’s affairs or secretly scheme with their “chief of staff” to influence its organizational elections. Everyone wants to be Mike Smedley at East Cleveland city hall.
Austin made the same move King made as council’s vice president when he declared himself president after Thomas Wheeler was recalled in December 2016. Wheeler’s recall created a vacancy in the council presidency. King violated Rule 23 of Council’s Rules of Order to take Wheeler’s job so he could declare himself mayor to replace recalled ex-Mayor Gary Norton, Jr. Every council president, including King through deception, has replaced a convicted or recalled mayor until Morgan.
In front of Morgan, the so-called chief enforcer of the city’s charter and ordinances, Austin violated Rule 23 of Council’s Rules of Order that instructed him on how the president of council and vice president of council’s vacancies would be filled. Richardson operated with him to create a fraudulent oath to transit to the Clerk of Council. It didn’t contain the language that Austin would not misspend money or accept bribes.
Of course, no one on the Morgan, Mansell Baker, Austin and Richardson team of council office obstructors read any law before they acted. Had Morgan read that Rule 23 is captioned, “President and vice president of city council; organization, reorganization and filling of vacancies,” it was her duty to remind Austin to obey it. Standing invisibly on the sidelines of the picture her executive assistant was taking doesn’t conceal Morgan’s role in Austin’s usurpation of the council presidency.
“The organization, reorganization and the filling of vacancies of the Council offices of President and Vice President shall be in accordance with the following provisions. (a) Organization. The organization of Council shall be as prescribed by § 102 of the Charter of the city. (b) Reorganization. The reorganization of Council may occur at any time, by motion, upon the vote of three-fifths of the members of Council. (c) Vacancy. When a vacancy occurs in the office of President or Vice President, it shall be filled, by motion, by the vote of three-fifths of the members of Council. (Res. 2276, passed 10-11-1988)”
I can imagine Austin and Richardson’s faces and conversations when the clerk of council, White, rejected the fraudulent document Morgan had witnessed them create as a tool to take executive control of council. Unlike King’s two willfully unethical minions, White is literate and can read.
To execute the scheme Morgan witnessed Austin and Richardson engage in requires an admission from her that Shabazz created a lawful vacancy in the council president’s office when he assumed the authority of the office of mayor. Morgan can’t have it both ways. Either Shabazz is the former president of council or he’s the mayor. Either she’s with the King organized crime gang or the reformers.
Morgan’s being introduced to the habits that led to both King and Norton’s conviction. I know because I identified them to authorities and testified in King’s criminal trial. I testified for federal prosecutors in Onunwor’s trial.
Sandra. I like you. I’m very cool with people who know and love you. No one in my circle has said a negative word about you and it’s colored my opinion in your favor. One of my friends was married to your brother. My newspaper publishing mentor, Call & Post Publisher & Editor William O. Walker, was your grandfather’s business partner. As a descendant of enslaved Negroes, I’ve taken an ethnic pride in your free grandfather’s achievements. I’m pissed the wrong people are around you and leading you down King’s path to disgrace.
Save the Morgan brand. Leave the mayor’s office and campaign for the job if you “really” want it. It will make the quo warranto moot. You’re around the “dirty” folk who’ve taken the city down.
Don’t let them get you, too.
