CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County prosecutors said a plea deal with two former East Cleveland police officers is off following a judge’s decision allowing one of the officers to withdraw his guilty plea.
In January, Demarkco Johnson and Von Harris pleaded guilty to one count of bribery.
But before sentencing on that charge, Johnson hired a new attorney and argued he did not have a complete picture of the prosecution’s evidence when he pleaded guilty.
At a court hearing earlier this month, Johnson’s new attorney argued the lawyer who represented Johnson during that plea reviewed only a fraction of the evidence prosecutors collected in the case.
“How can you say that Mr. Johnson was advised by counsel to make a knowing, intelligent and voluntary plea?” said attorney Allison Hibbard. “His counsel had not even looked at all of the discovery. Not even close.”
Prosecutors accused Johnson, and another former East Cleveland officer, Von Harris, of accepting hundreds of dollars from an undercover FBI informant in exchange for providing falsified police reports during the summer of 2018.
Court records identified the informant as George Michael Riley, a former operator of the Arco Recycling plant in East Cleveland.
State investigators said Riley illegally operated the landfill, and a judge ordered Riley to pay more than $30 million in penalties, cleanup, and interest.
But Riley was not criminally charged in the case.
In court, attorney Hibbard questioned Riley’s credibility as a key witness against the officers.
But prosecutors painted Johnson’s motivation as something else, arguing that the former officer only asked out of the plea deal after prosecutors requested a judge sentence Johnson to prison.
“I believe that timing is very telling to the motivations here as it shows defendant Johnson, this is just a change of heart,” said Assistant Prosecutor Samantha Sohl.
Prosecutors described Johnson and Harris as a “package plea.”
That means Judge Maureen Clancy’s decision to allow Johnson to withdraw his guilty plea also negates Harris’ plea deal.
Instead of one count of bribery, both men will face three counts of bribery, along with insurance fraud and tampering with records charges.
A trial is scheduled to begin in August.
RELATED: 2 former East Cleveland Police officers indicted for falsifying reports, bribery
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
