CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An attorney for one of five Cleveland police supervisors charged in a 2012 police chase where officers fired 137 shots and killed an unarmed couple, traded blame with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty over who is at fault for delays in the case.

The most recent delay came Wednesday after two of a three-judge panel of the 8th Ohio District Court Appeals rejected an attempt to try the case in East Cleveland Municipal Court. It was in that city where officers chased and gunned down Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell after an extended chase through downtown Cleveland.

The decision, authored by Appeals Court Judge Frank D. Celebrezze Jr., says the dismissal of the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas case was invalid, and the case should never have been moved to East Cleveland Municipal Court.

McGinty, through his spokesman, pointed the blame at the defense attorneys in the case.

"The Prosecutor's Office has repeatedly attempted to bring this case to trial for almost two years," McGinty said in a written statement. "We attempted to try the case with Officer (Michael) Brelo, without Brelo, before Brelo and after Brelo. At every step we were met with delay and resistance from the defense."

McGinty pursued manslaughter charges against patrolman Michael Brelo and the five supervisors asked to split their cases from Brelo's. Judge John P. O'Donnell acquitted Brelo on May 23.

The common pleas case was set to go trial on July 23, 2015, McGinty withdrew the case in county court after Brelo's acquittal and charges were filed in East Cleveland.

McGinty came to an agreement with East Cleveland to have his office continue prosecuting the case in municipal court.

Henry Hilow, a defense attorney representing Sgt. Randolph Dailey, returned blame to McGinty.

"With all the expense, research, thought and deliberation spent on this case, at no time was it discussed that any charges brought in East Cleveland," Hilow said. "This case was ready to go to trial and this came out of left field."

Supervisors Dailey, Michael Donegan, Patricia Coleman, Jason Edens and Paul Wilson oversaw the Nov. 29, 2012 chase.

None of the supervisors fired their gun, but several participated in the chase, an investigation by the Ohio Attorney General's Office concluded. All of the supervisors went t Heritage Middle School in East Cleveland either during or shortly after the shooting.

The union representing Cleveland's rank-and-file police officers has also criticized McGinty's office for trying to move the case to East Cleveland, calling it "an unfortunate act of political desperation."

The prosecutor's office has 45-days to appeal the decision, but a spokesman for McGinty said the office hasn't decided how the office will move forward.