Sam Allard / Scene
Attorney Bobby DiCello holds up a photo of Jayland Walker.
A year after dozens were arrested during protests in Akron over the police shooting death of 25-year-old Jayland Walker, the vast majority of cases ended without convictions.
A grand jury previously declined to bring charges against the Akron Police officers who shot Walker more than 46 times.
“These individuals were engaged in expression of their First Amendment rights, and the vast majority were doing so lawfully,” said Summit Legal Defenders director Andrea Whitaker. “So I'm not surprised by these numbers, that they are not the numbers we typically see in criminal cases.”
That non-profit legal agency serves as the public defender for Summit County and represented 50 of the 62 cases. Of those 62 cases, 38 were dismissed and 10 ended in pleas or diversion programs. Of the 14 cases that did go to trial, seven ended in not guilty verdicts, five had guilty verdicts to some or all charges and two had cases that were dismissed or ended in mistrials, according to Whitaker.
Based on these numbers, first compiled by the Akron Beacon Journal, only eight percent of cases ended in guilty verdicts.
“I think that there was a decision to arrest everybody downtown at a certain point,” Whitaker said. “And that was regardless of the type of activity they were engaged in. And that is what has led to the numbers that we're seeing.”
Last month, 24 plaintiffs arrested during protests brought a federal lawsuit, alleging mass arrests — including of those who were not protesting and instead happened to be in the area — and unnecessary violence against protesters exercising their First Amendment rights and bystanders with chemical weapons and beatings.
"[The prosecutions] were a sham, designed to suppress free speech that they have harmed our clients," said Elizabeth Bonham, one of the attorneys bringing suit who filed damages for First Amendment violations last year.
The group, represented by Cleveland-based civil rights law firm Friedman, Gilbert + Gerhardstein, names the City of Akron, Mayor Daniel Horrigan, Police Chief Stephen Mylett, Deputy Police Chief Jesse Leeser and dozens of Akron Police officers as defendants in the lawsuit.
"In the meantime, additional 'Justice for Jayland' protests broke out and the city of Akron does the same thing–suppressing peaceful protest speech," Bonham said. "And that's where we had to file our case for injunctive relief. People are continuing to be harmed by the retaliation against their protest speech, not just from last July, but also from the more recent protests."
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