McGintycalabrese.jpg
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty, pictured here in December 2012, responded to NAACP branch president Mike Nelson's request for the release of the Tamir Rice grand jury transcripts mere hours after the letter was delivered to McGinty's office Wednesday afternoon.
(Lonnie Timmons III, The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said Wednesday that Ohio law prevents him from fulfilling a request from the Cleveland branch of the NAACP to release the Tamir Rice grand jury transcripts.
McGinty's strongly written response came hours after receiving the request from Cleveland NAACP branch president Michael Nelson. McGinty said in his response that Nelson "misunderstands" the grand jury process in the Tamir Rice case, as well as in the additional 19 fatal use-of-force cases McGinty's office has or will review.
A Cuyahoga County grand jury in late December declined to indict two Cleveland police officers involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir, prompting the NAACP request.
McGinty's full response can be read at the bottom of this post. He said the prosecutor's office is forbidden under Ohio law to release grand jury transcripts without a court order. At the conclusion of his letter, the NAACP's Nelson asked that if a court order is necessary, McGinty's office jointly file a motion with the NAACP to obtain one.
The Cleveland branch of the NAACP unanimously voted to request the grand jury transcripts at its general meeting Tuesday night. Branch vice president James Hardiman said at that meeting that the group is prepared to solely file the motion for a court order without the prosecutor's cooperation.
The NAACP is seeking the transcripts to see what the grand jurors saw and heard that led them to decline to indict officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback on criminal charges in Tamir's death.
The boy was playing with a replica airsoft pellet gun outside Cudell Recreation Center on the city's West Side in November 2014 when he was shot. The officers were not aware the gun was a toy when they responded to a report of someone with a gun.
McGinty said in his response that the cases Nelson used as examples for the release of grand jury transcripts "do not support his argument and do not reflect Ohio law." McGinty also noted that the sheriff's department investigation, as well as the numerous independent investigative reports that were publicly released were not part of the grand jury transcripts.
In addition, McGinty said in his response that Nelson did not have any comment on the grand jury process in the Michael Brelo trial. Though Brelo was indicted in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams in November 2012, he was found not guilty on the two counts of voluntary manslaughter in May 2015.
"But now, after the Grand Jury produced an outcome with which Mr. Nelson disagrees, he takes issue with the process," McGinty said.
While Nelson said Wednesday that the NAACP is not seeking to learn the names of the grand jurors, McGinty's response contends that Nelson is calling for the elimination of grand jury protections.
"Instead of trying to overturn centuries of legal precedent regarding the Grand Jury," McGinty said, "we want to join Mr. Nelson and his venerable organization to make sure the mistakes that led to a 12-year-old child's unnecessary death are not repeated."