First Posted: 3/18/2015
CLEVELAND (AP) — An attorney for a Cleveland police officer charged in the deaths of two unarmed suspects should not be disqualified from the case even though he represented 12 other officers who fired into the suspects’ car, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Cuyahoga County prosecutors have repeatedly argued that Patrick D’Angelo should be disqualified because the other officers could be witnesses at the trial of Michael Brelo, who is charged with two counts of voluntary manslaughter.
Brelo, 31, is accused of jumping on the hood of the suspects’ car and firing the final 15 rounds of a 137-shot barrage through the windshield in a suburban school parking lot on Nov. 29, 2012.
The other 12 officers were not charged criminally because prosecutors said that driver Timothy Russell, 43, and passenger Malissa Williams, 30, were a threat when they fired. Prosecutors say Brelo jumped on the hood of Russell’s car and fired the last burst 4 seconds after the first salvo ended.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John P. O’Donnell ruled that prosecutors did not prove that D’Angelo has a conflict of interest.
Prosecutors are worried that D’Angelo’s representation of Brelo could lead to a reversal should Brelo be convicted. Brelo’s legal team, which includes two other lawyers, argued that the interests of Brelo and potential police witnesses were not adversarial.
While prosecutors argued they were concerned about what the 12 uncharged officers might have told D’Angelo in confidence, O’Donnell wrote that because the officers gave statements to criminal investigators that are part of the Brelo’s criminal case, D’Angelo would be able to effectively cross-examine them without having to rely on information protected by attorney-client privilege.
According to the judge’s ruling, prosecutors have “expressly conceded its intent to establish that Mr. D’Angelo participated in an effort to withhold information or evidence” from investigators and a grand jury. O’Donnell concluded there is no evidence to support that claim.
A spokesman for Prosecutor Tim McGinty declined to comment on Wednesday. D’Angelo did not return messages.
