This is the FCB podcast Network. Great when they dry yaw boot change that dot Dog. We don't listen to y'alls in the Outdog. We don't listen to y'alls in the Outdog. Make a scream out down like got tuned dog because the rockets in the clown like a bla bla tuned into the char from the Outdoor, tuned into the charge from the Outlaw. Welcome to a special edition of the Outlaws. This is Darbiolla Kingpin Moorl. Don't forget too Like us on Facebook at Facebook dot com, slash the Outlaws Radio, follow us on Twitter and Instagram at the Outlaws or Radio. As many people know, UM, there has been a epidemic of violence breaking out and UH major cities across this country. UM Cleveland, which has its own unique challenges, there's no exception. We sat down with the Kyahoga County Prosecutor, Michael Malley and talked about a host of issues surrounding these challenges, and we also spoke about an incident that took place, ironically in the neighborhood that I grew up in, where thirteen juveniles beat up a random person for no reason at all and then was shooting at cars and it was just a chaotic, a chaotic, chaotic scene. So we opened with that and talked and talked about several of the issues as well. So we're going to get into that interview right now. All right, we have a very special guest on the show today. He is the Cuyahoga Town Prosecutor, Michael O'Malley. Welcome to the show. How are you doing, sir, Um, it's I'm happy to be here. Um, it's just been it's been a long week, but I'm glad to be on your show. Yeah, yeah, thanks, thanks for being here. And yeah, it's been a long week. So a couple of days ago you all had a press conference. Um, but an incident that happened in the city. We'll we'll start there. Um. The incident is, you know, personal for me because I'm actually from the neighborhood where that incident took place. I grew up right down the street from that gas station, so I know exactly where that's at. UM, tell people first what happened and what the response was from it. Recap that press content. Well, I came in I believe it was Tuesday morning, into our office and my staff over at the Juvenile Court had sent me a video that it had occurred literally just a few hours before the incident happened about twelve forty am, and my staffs had sent me video that they had just obtained from the police involving the arrest of approximately twelve juveniles or a vicious assault and then a wild display of gunfire going down to Saint Clair Avenue and approximately east one hundred and fortieth Street, where it appears they're probably firing at a moving vehicle as it's going down eastbound on Saint Clair. And the first portion of the video was the group of juveniles just violently attacking an individual, a young man of thirty four years of age, who was just sitting in front of the gas station apparently mining his own business with another individual. And this group of juveniles came up and just started to viciously punch, kick, body, slam and you know, and and and hit him for no apparent reason. And up beating I would say, lasted approximately sixty sixty seconds, and this individual literally took hundreds of punches and kicks from this group of individuals. He stumbled into the store that is at that location, the gas station store, and then within two and a half minutes, the juveniles, like I said, saw a car or some type of person or moving vehicle and they just fired. In particular one individual we counted him shooting eighteen times, but at least three other individuals, one with what appeared to be an AAR fifteen shooting down Saint Clair Avenue in the direction of Collinwood High School. But just a wild display of individuals just absolutely not caring about anything in art A bus passes the video is this is all going on while they're shooting dozens of shots down Saint Clair Avenue. And really the troubling part is certainly their actions, but that they didn't seem to be phased by after they beat the individual, nobody was in a hurry to get out, and then they just hung around for two and a half more minutes and then saw something else to attempt to destroy and they just started firing their guns. And since that time we know that what what appeared to be the ringleader of that group has now been charged on another homicide. I think we've ideed one of the individuals, the individual who had would appear to be the air fifteen, who was also one of the ringleaders in the beating upon the thirty four year old mail. He has been identified and um he was also the one shooting the air fifteen down Saint Clair. So we're working to get him in custoday. And you know, it's not going to surprise anybody in the community when it's learned that these individuals probably were involved in multiple, multiple other shootings and other acts of violence, and that in at least the Colinwood area. And I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that they were involved in in actions throughout throughout the area. UM. Now, the person I was arrestip o homicide, was that a juvenile too? It is a juvenile, he's sixteen years of age. Yes, he's involved in that, Hammie, he's involved in the homicide that occurred. I believe it's called Trumbull Part it's a park directly south of Colinwood High School in the neighborhood, located behind Colinwood High m Yep, yeah, I know exactly where that's at. UM. So you know, a constantine theme that I saw at the press conference that you know, you and other leaders talked about was that the level of violence now is unprecedented and you know, I'm like I said, I'm from that neighborhood. I remember what it was like grown up in the late eighties and nineties where it was rough, But I've never I've never I went back to the old neighborhood not too long ago, and it was unrecognizable to me. I've never seen the level of crime this high. Talk about what you've seen recently in the last couple of years. I guess as far as the crime increasing, not only in the city but in the county overall, well, what we're really seeing is juveniles who are in the possession of guns doing more and more damage. Certainly there's young adults also involved in the in the uptick, but we're really seeing a large increase in juvenile violence, to the point last year we had record number of juveniles. We had thirty five individuals who were charged with murder last year, and that was up from twenty three the year before. And it's just we're just saying just growing levels of violence. Excuse me, it was twenty one the year before. So we went from twenty one in twenty twenty one, two thirty five and twenty twenty two, and is of today, I believe We're going to be a twenty three at the end of July, So we're already on a pace to at least match last year's homicide by juveniles homicides committed by juveniles, and again in seven months, we're ahead of the pace that occurred just two years ago. So and that was a high. So we have not seen numbers like this ever involving the level of violence and gun possession charges like we have in the last two years. So, I mean, it's just it's puzzling to me, what's going on with these juveniles now? Are they repeat offenders? Are they people who have been in the juvenile justice system and just come right back out? Like what's going on? Well, I would say I do not. Like, let's we can talk to like basics of the twelve or arrested the other day for the eating and shooting down superior you know, for them, had prior adjudications, for them, had cases pending, um. So you know, but you can look at what what kids priors are, but the real issue is how many priors, not how many priors, what are their priors and do they have priorum acts of violence? And to me, that's you know, if if a juvenile is committing low level nonviolent offenses. I think it's incumbent upon the criminal justice system to try to work with those kids and their families, the young the young men and young women, to try to get them into programming and do analysis regarding their mental health, how they're doing in school, how how how they're relating to their families. Are they you know, are there any issues that we as the criminal justice system, the juvenile court can help to try to get working with with the juveniles and their families to give out to get them the right path in life. And so actually, I think has to be the goal for these low level offenders. And I think the system is now geared. We've done improvements over the last four or five years by opening an intervention center for juveniles. So we're trying to work with these low level offenders. The issue and the difficulty becomes, you know, when you have offenders who are engaging in acts of violence. You know, at what point does the pendulum swing and where we say, okay, while we've been working with this juveni and their families und rehabilitation, now they're starting to do ag robberies or not. You know, they're starting to do a card jacking or they're starting to do burglary. At what point does the pendulum swing to, Okay, now it's time to start protecting the community. And I think that's the question that many it has sends, many elected officials are posing to the juvenile court, is that have you been doing enough when the issue swings to acts of violence? Have you been doing enough to keep this community safe? And I think that's a fair question, and it's a question that needs to be asked, because again, we are seeing acts of violence that we have not seen before. And I think, however, in the in the past there has been certainly a great deal of focus on the juvenile justice system where community groups are trying to work with the court to try to help kids and work to improve the system. But I think some of the judges also feel some pressure, they tell me, because there's a lot of community groups who are demanding, you know, you can't put kids. You can't lock a kid up in ODYS, which is the juvenile detention system. You cannot put a kid in ODYS, or we don't want you to put kids in odus, or we don't want you to buying kids over to adult court. And I think some of those judges may be feeling some of that community pressure and as a result, are reluctant to send kids who may pose a safety risk to the community. But I think they're starting to feel and know and I understand everybody has different philosophies and that's what makes these decisions so difficult. And I truly believe that every judge is doing what they feel as best. But I think we're starting to see some questions asked. When we do see repeat offenders who've committed violent X, the questions are being posed, why are these kids still on the street. I think we've heard that across the board, certainly from the council representatives. We've heard it from Mayor bib and you know, it's a question that needs to be answered. I mean, it's a difficult question because some of these decisions. You know, you can get reports and you can get analysis as done by the juvenile court professionals to evaluate the individuals committing these acts. But I do believe that judges are trying to do the right thing, but it's becoming very difficult with the back and forth that they feel between community pressures of leaving kids out versus the community pressure now of they're destroying our community. We're talking with Michael O'Malley, Cayhog County Prosecutor. UM. So with with that, on on that note, let's talk a little bit about your approach when you're dealing with caces of this nature or even just cases in general. Um, just your your outlook, your approach, how you you uh these things. What are you take into consideration as far as the backgrounds and all that kind of stuff. Just talk a little bit about your approach. Certainly, you know, Um, I come from a large family, and you know, and it was very in at least in my home, you know, to keep we had I had ten brothers and sisters, and my parents they did a good job of keeping an eye on us and trying to bump us in the right direction throughout life. And we all know that with every family and every child, you know, it all starts with the home, and it all starts with people being involved in the lives of their children and really keeping an eye on them and trying to keep them in the right direction. So you know, we all know that's the first issue that has to be taken seriously in that That's why when we have children who are low level offenders or juveniles who are low level offenders. We try to get the family involved and try to get everybody on the same page to keep the kids out of the system. So my approach is we have to work with these low level kids, the low level offenders, and try to get them and work with their families and try to get up them on the right approach. Certainly, what we saw the other day, when we see youngsters from twelve to sixteen doing these type of acts. The first question that many of the elected officials asked the police chief, certainly council in Plensic, the mayor bib was where are the families? And you have to ask that question, where is the family of these kids that allow them to have these type of weapons, let them be, let them be out at this light at night and see let them all drive it around and stolen cars. So where are the families? And that's the first question, and it's you know, that's part of the equation we have to answer because if we're expecting the juvenile court raise and teach these kids right from wrong, we're already a step behind. It's got to start at the home. So my philosophy is to work with the families, try to get them on the right path, but also to protect the communities. So now that we have kids who are shooting down Saint Clair, we are now at another another level and we have to start looking at protecting the community. And that may mean that we work with these juveniles and their lawyers and we do some more analysis. But the difficulty in this particular case, in many of these cases, when you're using these type of weapons and these type of guns, it's going to be found out probably shortly that there's many other crimes involved. And so now we're going to have a really complex situation where not only did they viciously beat this innocent guy at the gas station and they're shooting guns down down St. Clair Avenue. You know, there's a good suspicion that they're involved in multiple shootings, and then pretty much law enforcement's hands are going to be tied, the courts hands are going to be tied, and if you've committed all these violent acts throughout our community, then you know, society demands that we protect the people in that community. I've been getting phone calls since that press conference the other day. I got one this morning when I walked in from an individual who were like, this is happening all the time at that location, this is happening all the time in our community. You've got to get these kids off the street. And so I think, you know, that is my philosophy. These individuals may and when we find out that they've done more, and it's you know, we're tests are being done now on the casings and the puzzles being put together is to all the other issues they're involved with. But I think we're seeing a situation, especially with those individuals who are shooting the gun down the street, that you know, community safety is going to take precedent and and they will have to, you know, go to court with their attorneys and have to deal with with in fact the acts they've committed, and that includes, in one particular case, in individual being murdered. So again, these are difficulty equations, but we look at each case trying to help the juvenile and get them on the right path. But again in these particular cases, at some point you're going to switch to community safety, and that's where we're at the conclusion of our interview with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael Malley is up next here on The Outlaws True Welcome Back. Make sure that you subscribe to the show on Apple, podcast, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcast, and if you listen to the show on Apple, please make sure you leave us a five star review and a comment is very important for the algorithm and for those of you who've already done so, thank you, oh so very much. And now to the conclusion of our interview with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley. Yeah, I remember at the press conference, you know, you said, you know, public safety has to be a priority, and I know that obviously that like you mentioned earlier, there's a lot of conversations that are going on and a lot of community pressures come in from different directions when it comes to these issues. But I think one thing that we don't often hear about, in my opinion, that we don't hear enough is the impact from victims of a lot of this this crime, a lot of this violence. Obviously, by you being the county prosecutor, you have interacted with victims a lot, talk a little bit about some of the things that you've that you've seen, and witnessed from the victims side, from the victims perspective, Well, you know, that's that's a great question, because they are the key to this equation. And for instance, you know, first of all, the voters of Ohio several years back past the Mercy's Law constitutional amendment, and that requires prosecutors to sit down with victims, and we always have, but you know, now it's mandated by law, and we get their viewpoint and their input on critical decision making points throughout the prosecution of the offenders who've committed these violent acts against them or their family members. So what we're seeing now is obviously if you've lost a loved one, Like I said, last year in Caihaga County, we had thirty five juveniles charged with agg murder or murder. I can tell you to a family, none of those families feel that letting a juvenile who may have been fifteen or sixteen or seventeen, none of them feel like giving them a year or two in the Juvenile Justice center and the juvenile justice system, giving a couple of years at od West is sufficient for the loss that they've sustained. So you know, we have to listen to the viewpoint and most of the families, matter of fact, all of the families of those victims are telling us these individuals have committed island act against our family member. We've lost somebody within our family. And they feel that this individual has so crossed the line that they need to be held accountable as an adult. And I understand that, and we have to listen to their viewpoint, and you know, so those are the difficult decisions that we're dealing with. Similarly, again, we have such a high number based upon the high level of violent offenses that are being committed. We have a high number of Quite frankly, the the the level of violence for those individuals detained within the juvenile detention center is much higher than those even committed you to the Taihagan County jail, because most low level juveniles are released. So when we see these individuals who are committing multiple ag robbery, card jackings, or do drive by shootings or those type of levels of we're meeting with the victims, and again, those victims come in front of the judge. I can recall a case recently where the individual was bound over for I think he did four or five card jackings in the vicinity of case Western, including the last occurrence where he shot a case student twice in the stomach, and listening to the testimony of those victims how it has impacted their lives and how that individual had a choice to make when he shot her, and how she was looking at him and he shot her, and how it has now obviously forever impacted her life. But listening to all that testimony, it's just so powerful, and it was very powerful to the judge, who I think was going on with a different impression of how maybe these things rolled out. And I think having the victims present, having the victims talking to the court, us hearing that, I think is having a very critical impact on how these cases are handled. And I know in that particular case it certainly had an impact to the court on how that individual is sentenced. So and I just thought about this, and many people are listening would probably unaware of this. Is why I want to ask, like, what is the difference in terms of the approach when it comes to the juvenile justice system versus the justice system. What is the difference in terms of like sentencing, in terms of the you know, what the juvenile justice system can do, you know versus you know, the regular justice system, and so and so forth. I think a lot of people don't know the difference. Well, I would say this first and foremost, the juvenile justice system is geared towards, really geared towards rehabilitation of the youthful offender, getting them on the right past. Again, I do believe, whether you're the prosecutor the defense attorney, the magistrate, or the judge, our goal is to try to rehabilitate juveniles because it's in society's best interests. The last thing anybody wants to do is to put a juvenile offender into detainment for a lengthy period of time. I mean, it's just it's bad for society, it's bad long term for that individual. And so the juvenile system is really geared towards trying to get the juvenile back on the right path, and I think we've made strides in doing that. So many of our cases today, over fifty percent of the juvenile cases in cahog Tony today are going through the diversionary tract into the intervention center where we're trying to work with these low level offenders. So that is the primary focusing should be the primary focus of the juvenile system. But the juvenile system given the nature of what we have, and we have juveniles who've their track has led them to picking up guns or aar fifteens like we've seen in that video and shooting or committing a murder. You again, the laws in Ohio then dictate that if you're using a gun in the commissioner and you kill somebody, for instance, and you're sixteen or seventeen, there's a you know, it's a mandatory brander. If it's shown that you were the individuals holding the gun and you fired it and killed somebody, that's a mandatory bind over. So again, what the juvenile system does is focus on those low level offenders, tries to get them in rehabilitation, but also acknowledges the fact that when you are committing significantly violent offenses that society's safety is now now the priority and you could in many cases are bound over to adult court. But in similarly with the adult courts, it kind of works the same way. We have diversion programs. We have a track. If you are a first time individual caught with a gun, we have a gun docket where we try to teach you and try to educate you as to the downfalls of using a gun or just possessing a gun in the wrong situation. And we have other diversion programs for low level offenders and an adult system. Again, if you're committing violent acts, and you're committing a violent act with a gun, much like the juvenile system, there are hard consequences, whether it's a one year, three year, five year gun spector or hard consequences where you will be from public safety put into confinement. So much. Again, the systems work very similar labs, but I would say in the juvenile system there's a much more emphasism, a much greater emphasis on trying to rehabilitate the offender in not putting them into any confinement. We're talking with County Prosecutor Michael. We have a few minutes left, so I got a couple more questions for you. Obviously, most people know, we've covered it on this show multiple times that the Cleveland Police Department is in a severe shortage, you know, one of the world shortages we've seen the police department that nineteen twenty eight levels at this point, what impact do you think that has had on the increase in violence? Well, I will say twofold. I think police have two functions. I do believe that if there's people see zone cars you know, on routine patrol, and in Cleveland, you know, cars are assigned to like sectors, so they're patrolling a certain area in a district, and depending on the time of night or day, you know, there's a certain number of cars that have to be on the road. So you know it's the first issue is trying to and it's the most important issue, is trying to through your police presence, trying to prevent crimes, because your mere presence causes those who might want to commit crimes to reconsider and not do them. So the first issue is preventive by your appearance in preventing crimes. The second issue is investigation. Once a crime is committed, you need staffing to investigate figure out who did it, whether it's a homicide, a burglary, a drive by shooting, whatever it may be. You need officers to investigate and gather the evidence and try to determine who the perpetrator was. And so it's critical that all of the detective units are staffed appropriately so that the second component of actually determining who committed a criminal offense is working in the best manner possible. So when we have depleted resources on a department, whether it's Cleveland or any other department, what you start doing is losing people from both sides, both preventative and also after the fact trying to determine who's committed crime. So that's why it's so critical to keep staffing up to an appropriate level. Right And my uh, my next question is, you know when I was when I was at your office for the press conference and seeing you know this, the video of this just this reckless, reckless, unnecessary violence of them jumping as dude for no reason. You know, I thought about all of the things that you and your staff has seen just by the very nature of being a county prosecutor. Um, and all of this, this increase in violence that you deal with day in and day out. Um, How how do you deal with that on a personal level, being exposed to that level of violence over and over and over again. I can imagine that it can that it can weigh on you sometimes. I think it certainly does. I think, you know, there's members of my staff who get so burned out on the violence that quite frankly had to be transferred to another unit that's perhaps, you know, less impactful. I you know, I think people in all walks of life suffer various trauma, especially you know, when you have to observe the videos and the things that we do on a daily basis. You know how I try to deal with it as I get on my bike and I go riding, and I try to just bring myself back to earth and try to get my mind away from the job. But you know, I also, while some days are tough watching that video the other morning of that innocent man being beaten, there's also some reward, in some satisfaction when I know that if we've arrested these individuals who are causing so much havoc on our community and destroying people's quality of life within their neighborhoods, there's a sense of satisfaction. And maybe that comes from my time as a councilman, where when you provide a community with a safe community, you provide citizens with a safe community. There's a personal reward for that, because I do believe that no matter where you live in Cuyahoga County, you deserve to live in a safe neighborhood. Your kids deserve to be able to peddle their bike up to the store and bring home a gallon of milk, or ride up to the neighborhood pool or the neighborhood park. And you know, that's the goal we should have. Whether you live at East one hundred and forties of Saint Clair, or you live in Soulin or Strongsville or Westlake, kids in families all over this county deserve to live in safe neighborhoods. And so my goal working here is to try to work with all of our different municipalities trying to bring that safety to every neighborhood. And when we do, and we when we catch the individuals who are destroying that safety in a neighborhood, now there's a great deal of satisfaction and there's a great deal of thanks When a family comes up to you and says thank you, thank you for defending us, for thank you for bringing safety to our community. There is a great deal of satisfaction. But with that satisfaction certainly comes a little trauma. But on a good day, the satisfaction outweighs the trauma. And we're talking about County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley and I guess my last question for you today is what message do you have for the community. What would you say to the community right now, who have obviously been through a lot over these last couple of years. What's your messageistic community. I think my message is simple, and I think we saw it in the case familiar to this week, that there's no one solution to the problems that we are facing. People have to get involved. The fact that somebody called that there were some kids going into a house in Colinwood led to the apprehension of a group of individuals that recklessly beat up a man, and we're firing guns down Saint Clairy, and that tip will undoubtably lead to the solvings of multiple other crimes that these individuals committed. So I guess my message to the community is be involved, support, support your neighbors, watch out for your neighbors. Certainly be vigilant when you're walking outside, when you're approaching your car, don't be sitting in your car playing with your phone. Help local law enforcement, make your community safe, and we will all have a better county for it, and for the families of kids who are on the edge. I say it, you have to step up and keep an eye on your children and really become involved in their lives and ask tough questions and and and keep them in the home, you know, once they're curfew hits, and and don't let them be roaming around the street, and and and ask the tough questions and search their rooms, make sure there's not guns under their bed, make sure they're not hiding stuff in their closet. Just you've got to be involved. You've got to work with the citizens within our community to keep it safe. But it's going to take the whole community to turn this around. Both citizens, law enforcement, the courts, the prosecutor's office. We all have a role to play and we all have to step up right now if we want this to change. County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley, thank you so much for coming on the show, and thank you for your service and all that you do for this community. Kyakoga County is blessed to have you in that position. So thank you so much, sir, Thank you much, much appreciated. All Right, one more time, thank you to Kyahoga County Prosecutor Michael o'molly for coming on the show. We really appreciated. We are out of here. We'll see you next time. Peace. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network, where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com.
