In the deal, the younger Jackson agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge. He has received a sentence of 18 months probation. Jackson managed to escape the harsher felonious assault charge and an abduction charge, for which he faced up to eight years in prison. Two counts of failure to comply had been dropped before the trial began this week.
Prosecutor Michael O’Malley’s office, in comments to cleveland.com, said that after testimony from the woman, Delilah Swift, who claimed Jackson attacked her, they weren’t convinced they could obtain a felonious assault conviction. They agreed to the plea deal at the request of Jackson’s attorney Jeffrey Saffold and characterized the result as a “fair and equitable resolution.”
Saffold’s comments after the deal (which of course were in his client’s best interest) were remarkable in the sense that they described the trial and its results in terms that are exactly opposed to prevailing sentiment.
He said that the younger Jackson had initially been overcharged because of “public pressure.” Though he didn’t elaborate, he likely was referring to the uproar in the wake of Adam Ferrise’s reporting, which showed that the younger Jackson’s crimes had been entirely ignored by city prosecutors. Everyone recognized the crimes instantly as felonious, but the city had not passed the case along to the county, which is protocol.
The picture that emerged to all but Saffold was that Frank Q. Jackson had received especially lenient treatment because of his familial relationship with the Mayor. Indeed, in a lawsuit filed against Frank Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams in November, the mother of a murder victim — whose death was linked to Frank Q. Jackson — alleged that Mayor Jackson’s repeated interference in the prosecution of his grandson and great-grandson caused them and their affiliates to believe that they were “above the law.”
But according to Saffold, this “terrible case would have never have been brought were it not for who his grandfather is. It’s a shame we had to go through all of this.” Anyone else who choked a young woman, punched her in the face, dragged her from a vehicle and then beat her with a truck hitch would have had a much fairer shake, in Saffold’s view.
In lengthy cross-examination of Swift, who is now 19, Saffold tried to characterize her as the aggressor in what was, by multiple accounts, a volatile long-term relationship. He got Swift to admit that she had no visible injuries from the truck hitch beating and that as Frank dragged her across a field near the CMHA housing complex, she was clutching the leg of his pants, refusing to let go.
In additional evidence, Saffold played Instagram videos that showed Swift throwing juice on Frank Q. Jackson’s current girlfriend, who is pregnant with Jackson’s child. Swift explained the video by saying she had been challenged to a fight at the Mayor’s house. Saffold also showed messages between Swift and Jackson which showed that Swift still had a romantic interest in him after the beating.
Assistant county prosecutor Brad Meyer maintained, correctly, that this evidence was hardly relevant to the violent attack which took place on June 10. Though Swift had admitted to Saffold that she was not a “passive” participant in being assaulted, she confirmed to Meyer that it was Jackson who threw the first punch. It was Jackson who was the aggressor. It was Jackson who had the weapon.
The attack, which Swift said began for “no reason,” should recall the violent (and indeed, felonious) assault by former prosecutor Lance Mason of his then-wife Aisha Fraser, whom he would later violently murder after he was released early from prison and immediately given a job in the Frank Jackson administration.
Mason was driving on that day in August, 2014, and his two children were in the back seat. Aisha Fraser was in the passenger seat. Mason slammed on the brakes and began striking Fraser repeatedly in the face. He choked her and smashed her head against the dashboard, breaking her orbital bone, before kicking her out of the car.
In Jackson’s case, he was driving a truck while Swift was in the back. They were parked at a gas station when Jackson turned around to punch Swift in the face. Then he moved to the backseat to more effectively choke her. Then, after driving Swift and her friend to the Outhwaite Homes housing complex, he dragged her out of the car and struck her with a truck hitch.
The Mayor was in the courtroom during the proceedings, but did not address the media after Wednesday’s deal. “I’m happy for my grandson,” is all he said.
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This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2020.
Wow!!! How pathetic is this!!! The only thing “fair and equitable about this“ would be if Taxin Jackson immediately resigned from office!!!
Is anyone surprised by this?? He’s corrupt but the people of Cleveland keep electing him as mayor. I hope that woman who likes at her son wins her lawsuit against Jackson and the CPD.
Oh but he’s a good “keed”. Ask his mother.
If your name is Jackson, you can probably shoot someone on Euclid Avenue and East Ninth and get away with it, and your posse will admire you even more. Who says Cleveland isn’t just like New York?
Only reason people are concerned about this is because he is related to the mayor. Prosecutors make deals all the time.Those who bear a grudge against the mayor use his grandson behavior as a weapon.
People in power have always helped their family members get out of trouble and if you were in the same situation you would do the same damn thing. Oh because he’s black he should be so honest and lock his grandson in a system that won’t help him be shit? This is what is wrong with us now paste a Black man’s face up here and hang his ass instead of helping him. If he was white he wouldn’t be in this article he would be in anger management and mental health treatment. We want to send all black people back into slavery even the black people our thinking is wacked up do to all the things we listen to read and the music everything we see about ourselves is negative. I hope he gets some help slavery is real
The whole court system is Corrupt no matter where you live. The county I live in is letting guys get away with domestic violence, harassment, menacing, stalking and violating a Civil Protection Order.
Just think if this loser would of went in front of the judge Frank Jackson hired that eventually killed his wife
Mayor Jackson grandson would of walked unpunished…
Perhaps the voters of Cleveland needs to remember this injustice and blatant abuse of power next mayor election?
What a shock that the rule of law is breaking down, how could it not when we have government officials all the way up to the White House flaunting the law at every turn? Is anyone really surprised by this?
Cuyahoga County prosecutors are really some of the biggest hypocrite pieces of shit to ever walk the Earth. They just can’t wait to act all self righteous, talk about criminal behavior and throw the book at every person who comes through that court, unless they have money.
If you have money, here in Cleveland, you can disembowel a hooker with a butter knife in the middle of Euclid Ave. and 9/10 county prosecutors will decline to even press charges, and that 1/10 only takes the case so the city can put a hand in their pocket and then give them a sweetheart deal.
There’s no justice at the Justice Center, place is a fucking disgrace.
The Mayor is
…a disgrace, pathetic and the fact he’s been placed in office for several terms speaks volumes of corruption, ineptitude and apathy. Cleveland likes to spew propaganda that they are this great city with a lot to offer. It is a lie. Maybe one day, the pathetic rust will crumble and maybe a Mayor with vision will point this city in the right direction. He is an embarrassment but don’t tell that to his enabling fan base who is just happy to see him show up at they church or funeral.
Please PLEASE let’s talk about the hundreds of white folks that got “drastically reduced charges” just because they weren’t white. If Frank, the grandson, looked like Eric Trump there’d be crickets. 🤷🏾♂️
Or if you know anything about criminal law. It was a shit case. The state was luck to get what they did. Not everything is a conspiracy.
Why do idiots always have to make it about race?
This guy would be a piece of trash whether his skin was white, black, yellow, brown or purple. He’s a piece of shit because of what he did, not because of his race.
Case in point, the prosecutors who declined to prosecute this case (and it was not because it was a shitty case, they bring shitty cases with the scantest amount of what could be called evidence in front of the court all of the time. They declined this one because of money and politics, doesn’t necessarily make it a conspiracy, though in this case I don’t see how that would be much of a stretch) are a somewhat diverse group if memory serves, and they’re all a bunch of clown shoes, regardless of race.
If our system was anywhere near just, these scumbag prosecutors should be the ones being prosecuted for both corruption and refusing to do their job because they were afraid of political or personal blowback from the mayor’s office. What a bunch of hypocritical cowards.
Pieces of shit come in all shapes, sizes, colors and creeds, why bring race into it at all?
Obviously this guy is a POS who deserves jail time, but why do women persist in hanging out with men like this? I’ve never understood it. I’m not blaming the victim, I just don’t understand why you’d hang around after someone hit you. That is all.
To call this shit hole city a banana republic is an insult to the third world.
It’s fair if you’re rich and powerful, or at least related to someone that is. Welcome to the American justice system! Take a ticket and prepare to thoroughly not enjoy your stay.
Smh. Some defending him is unbelievable. Gtfo. He waa was already on probation for other dumb shit he is guilty of plus suspected of more! Another slap on the hand and a slap in the face to the officers and the public!
City is disorganized crime. Feds/military need to take over! Shut it down and hit restart button. Smdh