Willa Hemmons

Ernest Smith’s testimony was a crime confession Brandon King asked him not to share

CLEVELAND, OH – Ernest Lamont Smith, 49, doesn’t know how much of a loser he portrayed himself as when he told jurors in his criminal trial that he made his $4500 a year council salary his full-time source of income for four years.  That’s $86.53 a week plus an open invitation to join Mayor Brandon King and Michael Smedley at the “all you can steal” buffet. Smith didn’t have a job when King appointed him along with Ricky Pitts, illegally, to serve on the city council in 2017.   To protect his investment in his illegal appointees, the racketeering-minded mayor threatened…

Read More

Attorney Heather McCollough violated indemnification laws to defend dirty cops without seeking a resolution from East Cleveland city council

Sandra Morgan, unfortunately, aligned herself with the criminal element in East Cleveland city hall instead of the reformers who've fought for their removal. Heather McCollough is seeking a Cleveland municipal court judgeship as East Cleveland's fired ex-malicious prosecutor. Instead of advising Morgan not to use her for personal legal affairs, McCollough entrapped her into a public confession on WOIO that was noted by Ideastream's Matt Richmond.

CLEVELAND, OH – Attorney Heather McCollough could rightfully be nicknamed “Willa Mae Hemmons, Jr.” for the way she criminally engages in legal malpractice in the name of the municipal corporation of East Cleveland.  Instead of seeking a seat on the Cleveland Municipal Court, McCollough, like her “official document forging” mentor, Hemmons, should be facing criminal prosecution and an investigation by the Disciplinary Counsel of the Supreme Court of Ohio.  East Cleveland taxpayers have every right to demand that its elected officials file malpractice claims against each of the “sisters of legal chaos.” The May 22, 2025 “answer” McCollough filed with…

Read More

County landbank gifted Austin a free house valued at $17,500 while he campaigned to join East Cleveland city council

CLEVELAND, OH – The Cuyahoga County Land Reutilization Corporation (CCLRC) quit-claimed a free home addressed at 12600 Speedway Overlook to East Cleveland city council candidate Timothy Ray Austin on September 25, 2023.  The property exchange occurred 43 days before the general election in which Austin defeated incumbent Ward 2 Councilwoman Juanita Gowdy on November 7, 2023. Gowdy had dually served as council’s president and had been raising questions about the CCLRC’s legislative requests after one of its officials offered a council employee a bribe to place its legislation on the agenda.  Austin appeared to be the CCLRC-backed replacement candidate.  He…

Read More

Mayor Morgan fires attorney who stole from East Cleveland taxpayers and aided Brandon King in committing crimes

CLEVELAND, OH – Interim East Cleveland Mayor Sandra Morgan has enforced one of the two resolutions city council enacted on January 26, 2023, and removed Beachwood resident and ex-vendor attorney Willa Mae Hemmons from discharging any duties as the city’s director of law she’s been impersonating since the resolutions were enacted.  Hemmons’ last day was Monday, March 31, 2025. The lock to the law director’s office was ordered to be secured by Morgan two years and two months after Hemmons was officially fired by a resolution of council on January 26, 2023.  A city hall source said the office Hemmons…

Read More

Over $1 million in fees and fines concealed in Judge Will Dawson’s court clerk’s safe

Judge William Dawson had no idea Mayor Brandon King's ex-finance director, Charles Iyahen, was involved in a scheme to pay his wife $107,000 a year. Iyahen should have deducted the county's percentage from the $64,500 Dawson approved and returned the difference to the court's budget.

CLEVELAND, OH – While it’s a duty of the director of finance of a municipal corporation to report to the legislative authority about the condition of its finances, Charles Efosa Iyahen kept his mouth shut about the more than $1 million in fees and fines his clerk of court wife stockpiled in an East Cleveland municipal court office safe for over three years.  State officials learned from me on February 28, 2023 that Iyahen and Judge William Dawson’s clerk of court, Wendy Jonelle Howard, were married in 2022.  She’s now Mrs. Wendy Jonelle Iyahen. The quiet Las Vegas wedding occurred…

Read More

State investigating East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King and Phyllis Mosley’s violation of civil service laws in hiring and promoting police

EAST CLEVELAND, OH – According to indicted Mayor Brandon King’s personal attorney, Willa Mae Hemmons, acting chief of police Kenneth Lundy was hired on June 5, 2016 by recalled ex-Mayor Gary Norton without civil service testing as a BPO.  While there is no such job classification as a BPO, East Cleveland city council codified a non-classified Beat Patrol Commissioned Officer (BPCO) position in July 1998 that gave mayors the authority to hire them for six months to work on special police assignments. They earn no more than a 3rd grade patrol officer and must officially be “reappointed” by the mayor…

Read More