EAST CLEVELAND (AP) - A defense attorney says a city law director's offer to have five Cleveland police supervisors each pay $5,000 in exchange for not pursuing dereliction of duty charges against them is "extortion."
Henry Hilow, an attorney for one of the supervisors, says East Cleveland Law Director Willa Hemmons made the offer last month. She didn't return messages seeking comment Saturday.
The supervisors were on duty in November 2012 when two black unarmed suspects were killed in a 137-shot barrage of Cleveland police gunfire in East Cleveland after a high-speed chase.
The supervisors were originally indicted in Cuyahoga County in May 2014. The charges were dismissed in July 2015 to allow East Cleveland to try their cases, but no charges have been filed there.
Hilow says there's no basis for such payments.
