April 13, 2018 - 6:09 AM
CLEVELAND - Five Cleveland police supervisors have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanour charges for failing to supervise a high-speed chase that ended with a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire and the deaths of two unarmed black people in November 2012.
The supervisors entered pleas to dereliction of duty charges Thursday in East Cleveland.
They were originally indicted in May 2014 along with Patrolman Michael Brelo, who fired 49 shots and was acquitted a year later of involuntary manslaughter.
Then-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty dismissed the supervisors' charges after Brelo's acquittal so they could be tried in East Cleveland, where Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams were killed.
Defence attorneys rejected East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons' offer last month to dismiss the charges if the supervisors each paid $5,000 to the city.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018