Summit County Prosecutor - strongarm tactics to force plea agreements

The newspaper articles came too late for Keenya. At the time, she did not know the Prosecutor's office routinely used the power of their office to force even innocent defendants to accept pleas. They did that by over-indicting - heaping charges against the defendants and threatening more if the defendants continued to refuse to accept their plea offer.

When Keenya's attorney refused to accept a plea offer that would have netted her 20 years, the Prosecution filed 30 additional charges; if she continued to profess her innocence, they threatened to file more even if they totaled 1,000. The Prosecution was intent on forcing her to accept a plea and avoid a trial - why?

Reluctantly, Keenya finally agreed to a 'final' plea offer conveyed by her attorney who told her she should take it because: he would not be able to mount a defense as he had never been given the opportunity to view the Prosecutor's so-called evidence. He reasonsed that if she proceeded to trial under these circumstances he was afraid she would spend the rest of her life in jail. If she accepted the Prosecutor's last-chance plea offer to plead guilty to 5 counts of child endangering, she would most likely receive probation but no more than 1 year in jail. What she got was the maximum of 25 years in prison without chance of parole!

(To view the Akron Beacon Journal articles - click on "News Articles" link in the left side-bar.)