CLEVELAND, OH – The day after Christmas 2020, Michael Smedley went into hiding and stopped showing up for work at East Cleveland city hall … again. Gary Norton had been indicted along with Vanessa Veals on December 14, 2020. Twelve days later, the day after acknowledging the celebrated birth of Yeshua the Christ on December 25th, I published a November 2018 audio recording of Smedley’s conversation with Ward 2 residents on my EJBNEWS website December 26th.
Smedley’s recent disappearing act is the same as the behavior that drove him into hiding when he told residents of Ward 2 in East Cleveland, Ohio at Apthorp Towers that the worst day of his life was when he saw his name published in an EJBNEWS story. On that day Cleveland’s most influential and informative news website identified Smedley as the “chief of staff” in the conspiracy section of attorney Kenneth Tyson November 21, 2018 federal indictment. His crybaby series of never-ending, whining-azzed lies to Ward 2 residents at Apthorp Towers established very clearly to the streetwise that his punk azz ain’t got no heart.
Tyson’s federal indictment listed Smedley’s initials as “M.S.” under the title “chief of staff.” Tyson worked for James Rokakis’ “county landbank” known as the Cuyahoga Land Reutilization Corporation five federal law enforcement agencies are investigating.
According to Smedley in the audio recording, Tyson did not acquire ownership of a city landbank home with his help. He told residents he did not know George Michael Riley, but he changed and said Stephens had introduced him to the illegal and identity-changing dump operator. George Michael Riley in 2018 changed his name to Anthony Michael Castello in honor of his mother’s family after he disgraced his father’s. The name “Riley” won’t be useful with all the revelations the late investigative journalist Gerald Strothers of 44112NEWS uncovered about Christine Beynon’s “pimp” in his future “scam plans” after prison.
Beynon is on record as saying Riley, or now Anthony Michael Castello, used her love and money to acquire the former General Electric’s lighting division manufacturing site to open a deadly construction and demolition debris landfill in between Cleveland’s Collinwood High School and East Cleveland’s Apex Academy charter school in 2014. East Cleveland council had enacted an ordinance requiring the mayor to retain possession of the title of the property until the buyer of landbank property complied with an ordinance to “prepare it for redevelopment.”
Norton transferred the property to Beynon’s company three months later in complete disregard for the ordinance he’d asked council to approve as mayor. He acomplished it under the guise that the $150,000 was needed to make payroll. Ex-councilman Mansell Baker sponsored the legislation that brought the dump to the city, along with Thomas Wheeler and Brandon King, in a 1:30 p.m. “special meeting” which violated the city’s charter.
All ordinances in East Cleveland are required to be enacted during regular public meetings in city hall on the first and third Tuesdays of the month at 6:30 p.m. The afternoon meeting concealed the legislation from the city’s residents and prevented them from exercising their right to be heard before all legislation is enacted.
Witnesses say Riley then cut deals with Pete & Pete to dump Cuyahoga County landbank properties at the location; and then set up three demolition companies of his own to dump at his own site and to eliminate any demolition competition. There’s a CAD call of Stephens contacting ex-chief of police Michael Cardilli to have police release one of his excavators.
Instead of redeveloping the property, Riley demolished and sold off an estimated $3 million in scrap steel that should have been delivered to the city’s treasury; and then opened an illegal dump he called a “recycling facility.” Norton’s former girlfriend said he brought her and their daughter a weekly roll of $700 in cash on his normal salary of $40,000 a year with another $65,000 as safety director. This is addition to his contributing to the care of his now divorced wife and three daughters.
Baker sponsored the ordinance to deliver Beynon and Riley the property that turned into a tar burning, asbestos and glass particle spewing pile of death 5-stories high. There’s no record of him returning with legislation or the city’s police to have Riley and Beynon arrested and prosecuted.
Smedley also told residents, according to witnesses, he visited the U.S. Attorney’s office to ask federal prosecutors for a retraction of his initials being inserted into Tyson’s indictment. He told residents he possessed a written statement from federal prosecutors that he was not facing an investigation.
All the anxiety Smedley said he was displaying over published facts he claimed were not true seemed rather stupid if he was not M.S. or the chief of staff and had only met Riley once. There was no need for an innocent man to contact federal prosecutors over what I had written. He simply had to take me to civil court with a defamation claim so I would have to prove he’s the M.S. and chief of staff named in Tyson’s indictment.
Smedley was identified in the Tyson indictment 42 days after federal agents arrested his old boss, Gary Norton, along with Vanessa Veals on October 4, 2018. He told residents he was not the city’s chief of staff.
The initials “M.S.” and the title “chief of staff” remain in Tyson’s indictment as he’s negotiating for less prison time. The soon-to-be permanently suspended ex-attorney may have already confessed how Smedley helped him with the landbank property as his role was identified in the “conspiracy” section of his “felony” indictment.
Smedley should have worked a job in the salary ordinance and been administered an oath of office to discharge “some” statutory duty from a lawful public office instead of creating a paper trail of being nothing more than a bag man. He might have learned the word “conspiracy” had he chosen books instead of a broom as a profession before he asked to be appointed as my chief of staff. 18 U.S.C. 371 … Mikey.
Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud United States. If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.If, however, the offense, the commission of which is the object of the conspiracy, is a misdemeanor only, the punishment for such conspiracy shall not exceed the maximum punishment provided for such misdemeanor.
Witnesses say Stephens helped Tyson set up an asbestos company to receive contracts from Rokakis and Frangos’ racketeering influence corrupt organization. Sounds like another “conspiracy.” Rokakis’ cousin is demolishing landbank property in East Cleveland. Another conspiracy. RealNEO website long ago identified Rokakis and Frangos as delivering Cleveland properties in the county landbank to Frango’s brother Lou’s partner; a convicted Communist Albanian alien organized crime figure named Sata Satka. Yet another conspiracy on top of all the other little conspiracies involving thieves and conspirators in our governments.
Chief of staff is posted on Smedley’s Linked In page. When this human double for Walt Disney’s cartoon character, Goofy, asked to be my chief of staff I asked about his background. Smedley seemed to think being a union organizer for custodians qualified him to manage a municipal workforce of 280 employees and a $21 million general operating budget.
I “generally” told Smedley I was my own chief of staff and didn’t need any upper management help. If he’d signed on to keep the building clean I might have considered him. It’s amazing to me that if this dumb guy thinks Brandon King’s dumb. How dumb is King? I forget. He hired Larry McDonald and appointed him as a police commander. I laid McDonald off in 2008 because he couldn’t write a coherent and legally supported incident report. I assigned him to check on certificates of occupancy before I laid him off.
Any federal agent interrogating Smedley should know he’s as pathological a liar as Norton. If their lips are moving they’re lying. You can’t trust “anything” they say in contrast to the data in public records.
Throughout his employment Smedley has missed months of “paid” days off in a city where vacations are capped, legislatively at three weeks and “use it or lose it laws” don’t allow for vacation accumulation. He’s also being paid public funds to discharge the duties of a non-existent “chief of staff.” It means he’s stealing from the taxpayers of East Cleveland. The title he’s earned is “thief.”
East Cleveland city council chose not to fund the job classification since sometime 1999 after it was created for me in 1998. Richmond Heights resident Brandon King and his bootleg finance director, Charles Iyahen, have conspired to misappropriate public funds to pay Smedley for the job title he claims he possesses with no oath of office or council authorization. I expect to see the word “conspiracy” showing up, soon, in numerous federal indictments as soon as or before the new United States of Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio is administered an oath of office.
King and Iyahen have repeatedly refused Ward 2 Councilwoman Juanita Gowdy’s demand to know how Smedley’s being paid; and how he’s able to order a police officer to arrest a member of council if he’s not or employees do not believe he is the “chief of staff.”
