CLEVELAND -- Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty told a citizen that the grand jury investigating the Tamir Rice shooting can "read the newspapers" to obtain the ruling of a Cleveland judge who found probable cause to bring criminal charges against the officers, according to an affidavit obtained by WKYC Channel 3 News.
To the Rice family attorneys, the exchange is another example of the "charade" McGinty is orchestrating as the grand jury process has unfolded the past several months.
The family has asked McGinty to recuse himself and hand the case over to a special prosecutor. McGinty has declined.
Rick Nagin, 73, attended the Nov. 5 public forum in Fairview Park and said he approached McGinty after a question and answer session.
During that same meeting, McGinty questioned the motives of Rice's mother and her attorneys and said their concerns over the case were a matter of "economics."
Nagin said he asked McGinty if he planned to present grand jurors with the June 11 ruling by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Ronald Adrine, who found probable cause to indict Officer Timothy Loehmann with murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, negligent homicide and dereliction of duty.
A citizens group this spring asked Adrine to review the case and determine if probable cause existed to bring criminal charges against the officer and his partner.
However, prosecutors were not bound by the judge's findings. Instead, McGinty is having the case reviewed by a grand jury.
After the Fairview Park forum, according to Nagin's affidavit, McGinty became "very angry" when asked by Nagin if he planned to share Adrine's written findings against the officers with the grand jury.
McGinty is submitting two expert reviews of the shooting. Both reports side with the officers.
"You're accusing me of hiding evidence from the grand jury," McGinty retorted, according to the affidavit provided to the attorneys for the Rice family.
"Judge Adrine has not presented me with anything," McGinty told Nagin, according to the affidavit. He then added, "(The grand jurors) read the newspapers."
Nagin said he "protested to Prosecutor McGinty that I was simply asking a question, but it was clear that he did not want to discuss the matter further. So I dropped the issue and walked away."
Loehmann fired the shots that killed 12-year-old Tamir on Nov. 22 outside the Cudell Recreation Center on the city's west side.
Adrine also found probable cause existed to charge Officer Frank Garmback with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty.
Garmback is the officer who drove the police cruiser onto a sidewalk where Tamir was seated in a gazebo. Tamir was armed with a toy gun and 911 callers told police he was threatening visitors to the rec center.
Loehmann has said he fired believing the Tamir was reaching for a gun.
Critics say Garmback should have parked at a further and safer distance before Loehmann exited the cruiser.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Nagin, a local Democratic Party ward leader in Cleveland, said he was "very surprised" by McGinty's strong reaction.
"I just wanted to talk to him calmly," Nagin said. "He speaks about all these outside expert witnesses and their reports and he didn't say anything about Judge Adrine's findings and if he planned to give them to the grand jury. I felt the judge's opinion is very reliable and should be included. But he got all agitated and just starting running away from me."
A spokesman for McGinty declined comment.
Subodh Chandra, who represents the Rice family, released a statement late Wednesday afternoon.
"Prosecutor McGinty claimed he'd present all relevant information to the grand jury and invited the world to provide him with such information," Chandra said.
"Yet his disturbing evasion when asked whether he'll present the grand jury with Judge Adrine's opinion that probable cause exists to charge the officers, his refusal to say he'll present [an professor's legal] opinion that a jury must decide the officers' guilt, his continued personal praise of his so-called 'experts' and their reports and his refusal to say he'll give the grand jury the information undermining their credibility, and his nasty and unprofessional attack on Ms. Rice—all leads the Rice family to the devastating conclusion that the process is a charade.
"The prosecutor is, the family believes, trying to avoid accountability for the officers—and trying to avoid accountability for himself in the way he is going about it."
