Judge Donald Nugent

Facing 100 years in prison, Al Zubair brothers sabotaged their own defense with secret recordings and ChatGPT

CLEVELAND, OH — Local followers of the federal criminal trial of convicted ex-East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King’s chief of staff, Michael Leon Smedley, have been wondering why it’s taken more than 70 days after his February 20, 2025 superseding indictment to be heard.  His trial with the Al Zubair brothers was originally scheduled for April 14, 2025.  The answer for the delay is found in a docket that details the stall tactics being used by his sibling co-defendants. The two Cleveland brothers, Zubair Mehmet Abdur Razzaq Al Zubair and Muzzammil Muhammad Al Zubair, are each staring at a maximum prison…

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King and Smith’s state trial moves forward while Smedley’s fed trial is temporarily delayed

CLEVELAND, OH – The dockets for the state and federal criminal trials of indicted and suspended East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King, recalled ex-councilman Ernest Smith and his fired ex-chief of staff, Michael Smedley, give the impression the three men are preparing for plea agreements instead of a trial. There isn’t much in the way of pre-trial motions that King and Smedley have offered to challenge the United States and State of Ohio’s evidence and investigative procedures in the criminal cases against them.  Smith’s original attorney, a private attorney impersonating East Cleveland’s law director, Willa Mae Hemmons, initially filed a motion to…

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