EAST CLEVELAND TATTLER

Marc Issue Number 2, March 2012 pictures pro wrongdoing? eastcle lev Got pictur es or documents proving wrongdoing? eastclevelandleaks@gmail.com

Mayor breaks Spotts confessed to FBI that law to waive Hicks used dead hooker as thousands in out-of-pocket informant fees for wealthy developers
Talk of prosecution grows after Norton admits he broke Council law to waive well over $20,000 in building permit fees
As broke as East Cleveland is, council president Joy Jordan was shocked to learn that mayor Gary Norton ignored a city ordinance that gives council the exclusive authority to waive building permit fees so he could give a $20,000 break to a wealthy developer. Whats more, Norton admitted he personally waived tens of thousands of dollars in fees since hes been mayor in violation of a law that makes his acts a first degree misdemeanor. Im struggling to pay fees to get my porch fixed and hes waiving fees for rich people, said one outraged resident. This is crazy. At a November 15, 2011 budget hearing, councilman Mildred Brewer led off with questions about the waiving of fees which caused councilman Nathaniel Martin to rip into Norton for waiving fees for the Circle East Project in violation of ordinance 1301.21. That ordinance gives council, not the mayor, the only authority to waive building permit fees. Failure to pay is a first degree misdemeanor and the mayor is only authorized to enforce and not violate ordinances. Norton exceeded the authority of the mayor when he waived the fees and could be prosecuted for dereliction of duty. Meeting minutes show councilwoman Barbara Thomas scolded Norton for his unlawful act because it set a bad precedent. Martin has said council plans to find out how much money Norton has thrown away in fees because the city has a growing $5.8 million deficit and is facing a return to fiscal emergency. Critics said the Plain Dealer didnt check Nortons lies when he claimed he would pay-off the $5.8 million debt he created with $3.5 million in cash on hand and the remaining coming from a Huron Hospital deal council has not approved. If the city had $3.5 million in extra cash on hand then it wouldnt be threatened with fiscal emergency, a source said. The PD needs to do its homework and stop spreading his lies. Court records reveal police chief Ralph Spotts made a startling confession to FBI agents that detective Randy Hicks used murder victim Sandra Varney as an illegal out of pocket informant after a Carl Monday report fingered him as her alleged murder suspect in 2009. The shocking information is found in a 135page answer and counterclaim that ex-mayor Eric Brewer filed in Shaker Heights Municipal Court in response to a $375 breach of contract lawsuit mayor Gary Norton ordered law director Ronald Riley to file against him. The case was transferred to Shaker Heights by former judge Sandra Walker. Nortons pleading admits he bribed employees under the ex-mayors supervision in exchange for their failing to deliver his last paycheck and transfer a laptop computer and handgun he signed a sales agreement to purchase. Norton has kept Brewers last paycheck for over two years. Ohio law makes it a first degree misdemeanor for employers not to pay employees every two weeks. The court document reveals that Spotts had previously lied to the ex-mayor when he asked him about Hicks connection to Varney, a prostitute found strangled on October 7, 2006 behind the Noble Motel on Euclid Avenue. Monday had interviewed an unidentified woman who claimed to be Hicks informant, and who said he was set to meet Varney the night she was killed. Spotts told the former mayor Hicks didnt know the dead woman.

But when the ex-mayor demanded that he attend a meeting with FBI Special Agent in Charge Frank Figgliuzzi at the agencys downtown headquarters, the document says Spotts confessed that Hicks used Varney as an out-ofpocket confidential informant. The document says Figgliuzzi told Brewer the police practice was illegal. Spotts shocking confession supported allegations that Hicks had been using money and Spotts got Norton to protect drugs taken Hicks even after he was from drug accused of murder and boys to pay stealing a drug dealers snitches. television from evidence Hicks was a patrol officer assigned to a squad car and not a detective at the time of Varneys brutal murder and was receiving free rooms from the hotels manager for alleged undercover assignments. The court document shows Spotts secretly ignored the ex-mayors order to remove Hicks from the detective bureau and to launch an investigation to determine how he paid his out of pocket informants. It also reveals that Brewer had concerns about whether Hicks unlawfully
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Is Norton Home Alone?

Sources say First Lady packs up kids and leaves after cheating hubby caught in park with employee
Immediately after the Tattler revealed how cops found mayor Gary Norton at Forest Hill Park in a compromising position with a city employee hed given a $10,000 raise, sources say his outraged and humiliated wife packed the couples three daughters and left their Newbury Road home. Norton was a no-show at work on Monday and let chief of staff Collette Clinkscales and assistant and daycare operator Michael Smedley lead his weekly staff meeting. He avoided work the next day and showed up later that night for a council commitee meeting. Sources said the dwarf-sized mayor looked like hed been crying all day and appeared to be shellshocked. It was the second time hed been caught cheating by Wife caught Norton twice his wife.
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East Cleveland Tattler

Issue Number 2, March 2012

Norton, Spotts did not investigate cop to see how he paid informants
From previous page

used informants in the Art McKoy drug investigation. After learning of Spotts deception, detective Henry McCurdy was assigned to investigate Hicks for the alleged homicide, not his use of confidential informants as the chief had been told. But sources said Spotts went behind Brewers back and tried to pressure the detective to clear Hicks. Spotts later convinced Norton to fire McCurdy and police sources say the two have still taken no steps to train cops on the lawful use of confidential informants and have hidden the information from council. Brewers 85 exhibit counterclaim contains a letter he wrote to Deputy U.S. Attorney Dean Valore asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate police misconduct in 2009. The letter revealed the ex-mayors belief that Spotts lacked the professional training to lead the police department and that untrained police were violating the civil rights of the citys residents and visitors, and failing to properly investigate internal affairs complaints. The records show former NAACP executive director Stanley Miller supported the ex-mayors investigative request. Sources say Spotts convinced Norton to withdraw the ex-mayors request for federal

assistance because he didnt want the FBI inside the police department. The source said Spotts gets a piece of every security contract and wants to grow his cut by asking council to pass legislation giving East Cleveland cops exclusive rights to provide local businesses with security. One police officer said Brewer had to go because he had threatened to prosecute Spotts and other cops who were ignoring local business calls for help to pressure them into hiring city cops for security. An FBI presence would have ended Spotts racket and exposed deeds he wanted kept secret, the source said. Spotts is leading Norton around by the nose. Hell set him up and stab him in the back and then act like hes all upset along with him. Hes got a sick mind. Court records show Norton and Riley filed a motion to eliminate the information contained in the ex-mayors counterclaim because it revealed the felonious acts of elected officials and employees, and sought their prosecution. But records reveal that Judge K.D. Montgomery supported Brewers request that his counterclaim be heard and denied Norton and Rileys attempt to keep embarassing information about them, Spotts, Collette Clinkscales and other corrupt public employees away from the public.

The former mayors 135-page counterclaim shows that Norton received a $200 donation from Scott Gardner, the detective who had been assigned to investigate him for receiving pictures of the exmayor that were stolen from his home personal computer hard drive by Pitassio Taylor. It also reveals Gardners confession that Spotts told him not to meet with Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reids deputies. Records show The document describes how Det. Gardner gave Norton a Norton and Spotts put an $200 donation investigation of firefighter and Trammel Tucker on hold after obstructed his the former mayor ordered him investigation to be investigated and prosecuted for embezzling more than $40,000 from the firefighters union. Norton and Tucker are friends and fraternity brothers. Brewer told Spotts to push the investigation so it would conclude in 2009. Sources say fire chief Douglas Zook sought direct assisance from an outside law enforcement agency after Spotts ordered detectives to put the investigation on the backburner to appease Norton. Tucker was finally indicted in August 2011. EDITORIAL

Source says first lady packs kids, leaves hubby Council, voters cant wait
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A staredown between the two women occurred at a recent police meeting when Shalom Norton made it a point to be present just to see if the other woman showed up. As soon as the city employee spotted the stone-faced first lady, she turned around and left. Shalom was there to see if Vanessa Veals was going to be there, a source close to the first lady said. Nortons no-show isnt just because of his humiliation at being exposed. Sources said hes boycotting the job because council stripped him of the safety directors salary although newlyappointed finance director Jack Johnson admitted to criminally violating the ordinance to pay Norton in January and February anyway. East Cleveland voters changed the charter making the job full-time over 15 years ago, which gives Norton no other option but to work 40 hours a week inside city hall. If hes submitting time cards showing that hes working 8 to 5 and pretending that hes working from home he can be prosecuted for theft in office, said an attorney who asked not to be identified. Hes like a child throwing a tantrum and his only concern is how much money he can steal from taxpayers without working for it. He and his wife earn close to $200,000 thousand a year and he wants voters to give him more. Sources say members of council received threats from police chief Ralph Spotts after he learned some were distributing copies of the Tattler. Spotts was furious but hasnt denied that he was romantically-linked to a Cleveland

Heights dispatcher who once worked as an East Cleveland dispatcher, and abused his authority to try and initimdate legislators into saying where they got the Tattler. He called council president Joy Jordan a bitch, said a resident source who is close to Spotts. Norton has vowed to retaliate against council claiming hes going to bring them to their knees. He and Spotts are trying to trump up a criminal First Lady worried investigation against an cheating hubbys individual they suspect of unsafe sex acts creating the Tattler. Spotts puts her and daughters at risk said he suspected resident Jerry Strothers although Norton has told friends he believes its someone else. Spotts told residents at a recent police/ community meeting that he was going to send Strothers to prison, adding support to allegations that hes using the color of law to violate the civil rights of individuals he targets. Norton has ordered city contractor and videographer William Fambrough to create propaganda he wants to deliver to East Cleveland residents over the citys cable access channel. Fambrough was fired from his $40,000 job by the former mayor for laziness. Norton is paying him over $70,000 a year to do less work than he did for $40,000. Norton is a pathological liar who cant be trusted. If hell lie to his wife, East Cleveland residents dont have a chance, said a resident.

for FBI or state auditor

Council has correctly asked Auditor of State David Yost to investigate allegations of corruption and incompetence inside mayor Gary Nortons administration. But Yost and Norton worked together and hes already on record as saying hes impressed with him; an indication hes lost his objectivity about the mayors mismanagement of the city. Yes council should seek an investigation but we dont think it should wait for the results because its members already have power in Ohio law and the citys charter to control an out-of-control politician. Federal and state investigations take years to complete. East Clevelands money is being stolen and mismanaged by Norton and corrupt city employees today and council has the authority to investigate and issue subpoenas now to get information and testimony from those with knowledge of the unlawful acts. East Cleveland residents and voters have a history with jailed elected officials and employees the likes of no other community. Theyve experienced a judge, two members of council, a community development director and mayor who went to jail for corruption since 1985; and that doesnt include nearly two dozen employees whove been prosecuted for various crimes as well including a drug dealer pretending to be a detective. If anyone knows a crook its the voters of East Cleveland and Norton is a crook. Council president Joy Jordan and the council she leads have a duty to protect the city from lawbreaking officials and employees. Council should seek help but should not passively wait for others to do what council can do today.