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Edward Henderson

(Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office)

DANIEL S. CHAPLIN, ATTORNEY

On Jan. 26, 2015, The Plain Dealer quoted Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association President Steve Loomis as saying, "If the city thinks an officer did something wrong, they should charge them with a crime, not write a check. If there is an officer who does something wrong -- something intentionally wrong -- I'll help you get that guy."

On behalf of Edward Henderson, I accept Loomis' offer.

On Jan. 1, 2011, after surrendering to police, Edward Henderson was brutally beaten by six Cleveland police officers. The beating was witnessed by four other Cleveland police officers and caught on infrared video by a police helicopter. For his criminal conduct that evening, Henderson received a three-year sentence.

Despite clear video evidence of criminal conduct by CPPA members, the blue wall of silence rose up. Although four Cleveland police officers -- Paul Crawford, Martin Lentz, Christopher Randolph and Kevin Smith --- were initially charged with felonious assault and obstructing official business, they were not prosecuted and the case was closed.

On the advice of union-provided lawyers, five of the six officers potentially involved in the beating asserted their Fifth Amendment privilege at deposition in the civil case. Officer Lentz was excused from deposition because of the illness of his father. The other two officers deposed were Daniel Makad and Jonathan Dayton.

All police, including police union presidents and members, have a duty to disclose criminal conduct by their members. The president of the CPPA is uniquely situated to receive timely, factual information about each act of police misconduct that occurs on the streets of Cleveland. Union representatives are called to the scene of almost every incident involving the use of deadly force. Police are given 72 hours to consult with a union-provided attorney and a union representative before making any statement.

The union line on every case is always the same: "the officer was justified;" "he/she feared for his/her life;" "if the citizen had only complied;" "we are the good guys;" "it's a dangerous job;" "they are bad guys and we are justified 100 percent of the time;" "we are never wrong;" "we are always heroes."

Police union presidents repeatedly have failed to provide truthful information about use-of-force incidents, even in those obvious instances when police conduct can be characterized as state-sponsored murder

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CPPA leaders consistently have pointed the finger of ridicule and disgust in use-of-force cases away from officers and at citizens who become victims of police criminality. The CPPA leadership has pointed another finger at reform-seekers.

The mayor, police chief, the U.S. attorney, local civil rights lawyers, civil rights leaders and communities, as well as the African-American, Latino, LGBT and other minority communities, have felt the impact of the campaign leveled by CPPA leadership. The impact translates into a legitimate lack of trust of law enforcement.

The lack of transparency created by police misinformation is the standard rather than the exception in the Cleveland police department.

What action on the part of the CPPA would be helpful to Clevelanders and to its members?

The reformers, the Justice Department and Loomis agree on three significant facts about the Cleveland police department: The Cleveland police are poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly led -- and, Loomis would say, underpaid.

Now is the time for Loomis and the union to embrace reform, crack the "code of silence" and purge the department and the union of the criminal element that up to now has enjoyed union protection. The CPPA leadership should, on its own initiative, make a good-faith demonstration of reform by immediately revealing or confirming the names of all those officers who so fearlessly brutalized Edward Henderson while he was handcuffed and helpless.

The failure of CPPA leadership and membership to come forward on their own with their knowledge of the Henderson incident, if any, or their failure to force the officers actually involved in the incident to come forward with information, will only correctly cause the public to understand that the CPPA leadership is committed only to protecting a criminal element in their ranks rather than the people of Cleveland. Stop protecting these malefactors and start pursuing less violence toward the public, fewer million-dollar settlements, and more pay, better working conditions, better equipment and real leadership for Cleveland patrolmen.

Daniel S. Chaplin, a Cleveland lawyer, represented Edward Henderson.