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Lorain judges ignored city law when issuing license suspensions
The city of Lorain, Ohio, had a parking problem.
It was June 2022, and then-City Councilwoman JoAnne Moon was being flooded with complaints of cars parked on lawns. It was an eyesore, a quality-of-life issue, she told a council committee. Something needed to be done.
Then-Police Chief James McCann had an answer: “Hammer them,” McCann told the committee. “We need to hammer them so that they won’t forget that they got caught.”
With that, the council began deliberating an ordinance that would unleash a cadre of six auxiliary officers and sworn officers in late 2024 to blanket windshields with hundreds of parking citations, generating tens of thousands of dollars in revenue, and turning minor parking infractions into license suspensions.
The result was that from mid-December 2024 through mid-November 2025, when the practice ended, there were over 1,100 court cases resulting from parking citations, which led to more than 300 suspension orders, The Marshall Project - Cleveland found.
The ticketing stopped in late November of 2025 after we exposed the suspension issues.
Sometimes residents only found out they had lost their licenses after they tried to renew their plates or were informed by The Marshall Project of the actions against them.
“This was a hardship on everything in my life,” said Mary Haviland, a ride-hailing driver who learned last year that she had been driving without a license for weeks. “I never got a letter in the mail, or I would've gone to court to take care of it.”
– Mark Puente
Federal oversight of Cleveland police to continue
The city of Cleveland will not be allowed to exit federal oversight of its police force, a federal judge recently ruled.
One of the reasons U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr., the federal judge who will decide when the consent decree will end, ordered oversight to remain is that the city has not addressed the reasons why police disproportionately stop Black drivers compared with White drivers.
An October 2024 data analysis by The Marshall Project - Cleveland and News 5 found that Cleveland police searched Black people more than three times as often as White people during traffic stops in 2023. Federal monitors later reported similar findings from a separate data review in 2025.
Oliver’s 74-page ruling on May 8 stated that “the court still finds this data concerning, and is not convinced” the city has done enough to eliminate bias from traffic stops.
The consent decree created a blueprint for Cleveland police to repair community relationships and overhaul its use-of-force policies. It also required the police to record detailed information on every stop.
Oliver also noted the city has made significant progress on use of force, training, equipment upgrades and other areas of the agreement, which was enacted in 2015.
– Mark Puente
Troubled residential treatment facilities could face shutdown
Ohio officials who regulate troubled residential treatment facilities for youth are facing calls for accountability from both the legislature and a statewide disability rights watchdog group.
Residential treatment centers are highly restrictive inpatient facilities that are meant to treat children with complex mental health and behavioral needs.
Disability Rights Ohio released a report on May 13 after it made 75 visits to treatment facilities since January 2020, discovering patterns of abuse, neglect and unauthorized restraints. The group is calling on the Department of Behavioral Health, which licenses facilities, to act quickly to hold providers accountable, remove youth from unsafe centers, and, when necessary, suspend or revoke licenses.
Meanwhile, an Ohio lawmaker has introduced legislation that would compel the state licensing agencies to act.
Ohio officials would be required to take measures against troubled residential treatment centers — including shutting facilities down — under a new bill proposed under the state legislature.
The proposed Ohio House Bill 811 comes just months after a Marshall Project - Cleveland investigation exposed repeated violence at a treatment facility northeast of Columbus. The state is now trying to revoke that facility’s license. Hearings began this month but likely will not conclude until July, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Behavioral Health.
Bill sponsor Rep. Crystal Lett, a Democrat from Columbus, said she was filing the measure in response to The Marshall Project - Cleveland’s reporting on Mohican Young Star Academy.
“It was our proof that this isn't a hypothetical situation that we're legislating for. It's a real situation unfolding,” Lett said. “I can't help thinking: If my kid were in there right now, what am I doing to help that kid?”
– Brittany Hailer
Another grieving family sues for jail reform
The children of Jennifer Wade are suing to reform the troubled Cuyahoga County jail.
The 20-count, $50 million federal lawsuit cites reporting by The Marshall Project - Cleveland that linked Wade’s death in February 2025 to a longstanding pattern of medical neglect and poor monitoring.
Corrections staff and nurses who found Wade unresponsive waited 20 minutes to start CPR. One officer admitted on body camera that Wade had been lying on the floor since the previous day.
The county failed to release that footage to state inspectors who initially cleared the jail’s staff and administrators of any violations. The lawsuit alleges that county officials failed to adequately hire, train and discipline staff, and obstructed justice by deliberately withholding the video in a “coordinated institutional cover-up.”
A spokesperson from the Ohio Bureau of Adult Detention said state inspectors would take another look at the case after The Marshall Project - Cleveland made the department aware of the previously unreleased body camera footage.
County Executive Chris Ronayne’s office declined to comment on the pending litigation.
In addition to monetary damages for the loss of life, the family wants jail leadership to:
- Ensure proper wellness checks for mental health units.
- Disclose all body camera footage to state inspectors.
- Establish independent oversight of death investigations, which are routinely conducted by sheriff’s deputies and reviewed by state inspectors.
– Doug Livingston