CLEVELAND—The union for Cleveland’s firefighters on Wednesday asked a judge to ensure its criminal complaint against Cleveland Fire Chief Angelo Calvillo doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.
The lawyer for the Association of Cleveland Fire Fighters filed an affidavit in support of prosecution of the fire chief on Aug. 23.
Wednesday’s letter shows the union isn’t backing down.
The union says Calvillo violated a charter provision that says civil service employees may not take part in political campaigns or help candidates circulate nominating petitions to get on the ballot.
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Violating that provision is a misdemeanor crime that could draw a fine, up to six months in jail and prompt dismissal as a city employee, the charter says.
Calvillo testified at a deposition in 2017 that, while off duty early that year, he helped circulate petitions for Mayor Frank Jackson’s re-election.
The union’s attorney Joseph Diemert, in an interview Wednesday with cleveland.com, said Ohio law requires the affidavit, which essentially accuses Calvillo of a crime, be immediately reviewed by a municipal judge or the city prosecutor for action. It cannot just sit in the clerk’s office, Diemert said.
That concern prompted Wednesday’s letter to Judge Michelle D. Early, the administrative and presiding judge for Cleveland Municipal Court.
“I am reaching out to you as the presiding judge in hope that you would either make sure this is followed up with and taken out of the clerk’s office, or have it transmitted to the county prosecutor’s office for further processing,” Diemert said in the letter.
Requests for comment from the Municipal Court and from the clerk’s office were unreturned.
A spokesman for the Jackson administration declined to comment.
Cleveland Law Director Barbara Langhenry has disputed the union’s legal analysis and said the chief had done nothing improper.
If the affidavit seeking Calvillo’s prosecution ends up before a Cleveland prosecutor, the union wants the prosecutor’s office to step aside, citing a conflict of interest. City prosecutors work for Langhenry, who, like Calvillo, is part of Jackson’s cabinet.
The day before filing the affidavit, the union sued the city in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, asking that a judge order the city to enforce terms of Cleveland’s charter prohibiting civil service employees from engaging in political activity.
“To date, Chief Calvillo remains as fire chief and the defendants have failed and refused to remove him from his position of employment …,” the suit says.
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