Source: JIM WATSON / Getty
Timothy McGinty, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor has rejected a request from the Cleveland NAACP office to reveal grand jury documents in the Tamir Rice case.
Michael L. Nelson Sr, the president of the local branch, made the request on Wednesday afternoon at a general meeting two days prior. The NAACP had also asked the prosecutor to help them pursue a court order to get the documents released.
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The organization is pursuing the transcripts because the grand jury opted not to charge Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback, the two Cleveland officers involved with Rice’s death.
The NAACP’s letter specifically called for witness testimonies, statements offered to the grand jury, reports, diagrams, manuals and any conversations recorded and maintained by Cuyahoga County’s court reporter. The letter reads:
“Although we recognize the traditional secrecy that normally surrounds grand jury proceedings, in this unique situation, the events that transpired demand full, as opposed to partial, disclosure of the facts and proceedings that occurred before the Cuyahoga County Grand Jury that investigated the death of Tamir Rice.”
McGinty, however, responded saying that he wouldn’t hand over the documents simply because locals disagreed with the jury’s decision:
“Mr. Nelson misunderstands the process followed in the Tamir Rice case and in the other 19 fatal use of deadly force cases this office has reviewed or will review. This office has always been extremely careful not to release any Grand Jury testimony and to comply with the law.
“Mr. Nelson never suggested that we undermined the integrity of the Grand Jury by letting the public know what happened in the Brelo case. But now, after the Grand Jury produced an outcome with which Mr. Nelson disagrees, he takes issue with the process.”
McGinty insists, however, that he is willing to work with the organization to prevent another case like Rice’s from happening. In perhaps one of the most awkward, socially tone deaf statements ever, the prosecutor wrote:
“Tamir will not have died in vain if we learn from the mistakes made in this case.”
Read Nelson’s letter to McGinty here and McGinty’s response here.
[SOURCE: WKYC]
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