GETTING THEIR STORY OUT

The courtroom of Judge Thomas Elwell was packed today as defendants from the incident at the Red Parrot were due to have a hearing. Even though there was no hearing today, it has been continued to September 13th citing “further investigation is needed”, the defendants and witnesses wanted to tell their side of the story.

Attorney for 4 of the defendants, Michael Camera said that in a nutshell this case is about one man that caused a problem at the bar that night who was taken outside by the owner. “The Police were out on the street, having been called by the bar owner, and was given Haley Riley Baxter and they were done. Except the Sergeant showed up, Sergeant Wolford, who yelled at Mitch the owner, I guess you didn’t learn your lesson from the last time when I shut you down at the Flying Machine. Mitch then told him “you didn’t shut me down”. Then according to Mitch’s account Sergeant Wolford said then maybe you will learn your lesson tonight and ordered all the Officers to shut him down. So the other Officers were ordered by their OIC, their Officer in Charge Wolford, into the bar to shut them down. What I have heard from Mitch is that the other Officers looked at Wolford in amazement like why, why would we go in and shut them down? They went in under the auspice of some young kids who looked like they were under age. This is interesting because no one was charged with underage drinking, there was no one found to be underage and as near as I can tell, no one was checked. What we had was the Police ran in, caused a disturbance, jumped up on stage told the band to stop their performance, and then according to accounts of many witnesses that I talked to, the Police started yelling at people, grabbing people and if anybody said anything or was near a Policeman they were thrown to the ground and handcuffed.”

Camera said that he has a witness that saw the Police strangle Joe Fish, one of the band members. “I also have other people who say they saw a kid in handcuffs punched at least twice in the face.” Camera was asked why he thinks, if the allegations are true, would Police Officers react this way if the patrons were just inside listening to music and not bothering anyone. “The band was playing and one of my clients was in the band and yelled an obscenity at the Policeman when they came in and that irritated him.” When asked if he knew what his client yelled at the Officer Camera said he did know but couldn’t repeat it. Cameras clients brother, Shawn Fish, did share with us the obscenity and you will read that in his interview. Camera went onto say that the Officer jumped up on stage and there was no resistance. "If you ask any patron in the bar, nobody was fighting anybody else; no one had a reason to fight anyone or the Policemen. If you look at the reports, not one Policeman alleges or says they have one scratch or bruise on themselves.”

We asked Camera why his client would yell the obscenity at the Officer if he was up on stage playing his music. “I don’t know, maybe he was caught in the heat of the moment. He was on stage singing his lyrics, it was his last song and they wanted to finish their last song yet the Police were yelling at them to stop and I guess they didn’t want to stop.” Camera said there is some confusion if the obscenity that was yelled was directed at the officer or was just part of the song.
Camera said that he is encouraging witnesses that were at the Red Parrot that night to contact the Police Chief or Lt. Jim Rohner and tell them everything that they saw that night. “Our position is the more that comes out, the more that is known by the Police Department and the Prosecutor about what happened; the more likely the cases against my clients will be dropped.”

The case right now is being investigated internally by the Lorain Police headed up by Lt. Rohner. Camera said that he doesn’t want to dismiss the Police Departments investigation out of hand; “The Chief is a good man, I’m only dismayed by the fact that Lt. Rohner hasn’t even talked to Mitch, the owner of the bar yet. He may be talking with the Officers first and then will be talking to Mitch but I guess I will have a wait and see attitude about that.”

Camera wants people to know that this incident does not reflect the entire Lorain Police Department. “I grew up in Lorain and my office is here. We have problems in Lorain; I believe 7 murders this year. We’ve got good Police Officers doing a very difficult job dealing with some very high end crime and they are to be commended for their service. That might be part of the problem here. I think Police Officers ran into this bar expecting a bunch of gang bangers and treated them that way. When actually what you have are college or post college kids listening or playing in a band."

Shawn Fish is one of the men arrested that night; his brother was playing in the band that was performing at the Red Parrot that night. Fish gave us the following account of what he saw. As Officers went up on the stage Fish followed to find out what was going on. “I stepped up onto the stage and tried to talk to them, asking why they were arresting them first of all. He said that he (Fish’s brother and band member) made a gesture and told him (the Officer) to eat a dick. I told him that he was just playing his music, that it was lyrics to a song and he said no its not he was directing it at me.” I asked Fish what the name of the song was that his brother was singing at the time, “Umm, I don’t even know, I have only seen them play twice.” Fish said that he stood next to the Officer on the stage and put his hand on his back near the shoulder area. “I guess he said don’t touch me then the next thing I really remember is vaguely being strangled I know I was thrown on my head off of the stage. I vaguely remember being strangled, then I woke up, face down with handcuffs on inside the bar with a lot of people walking around me, I don’t think there were very many people running or anything like that but it could have been a dangerous situation being unconscious with no cops around me.”

Fish was asked why he thought Officers would do what has been alleged. “I’m not sure; I know people are saying that the Sergeant has a personal vendetta with the owner of the bar. He was outside telling the other Officers to go in and shut it down. Then they came in there and my brother made a gesture at them flipped them off and told em to eat a dick and that kinda made them mad. Then after that it was like they were pissed off and they were just going to take it out on us. They wanted to shut the place down anyway, what better way then to say this place has riots.”

Fish said that although he is not sure that the internal investigation will bring any disciplinary action to the Officers involved but he is happy that it will bring more information out about what happened that night. Fish was charged with Aggravated Rioting Disorderly Conduct and Resisting Arrest.

Mitch Karczewski, the owner of the Red Parrot said that what happened that night was all based on a vendetta against him from Sgt. Wolford. “What happened that night was a few Policemen reacted to an order from a bad Policeman that was in charge. It was a personal vendetta against me that started this thing. When Officer Wolford saw me he said hey didn’t I teach you a lesson at the other place? He didn’t teach me any lesson, I broke no laws. The Red Parrot has a clear record; it has no liquor violation and no arrests there. So how can a person like that call my place a public nuisance?”

Joe Fish was playing in the band at the Red Parrot the night of the incident; he was arrested after flipping off a Police Officer and telling him to “eat a dick”. Fish said the reason he did this was because he was pissed off. “I was pissed off cause one of my friends was in the back of a Police car and they arrested one of my friends, which he was let go actually but I was pissed off.” Fish said that although he can understand why the Officer might have been made, he believes his Freedom of Speech protects him.

Parties will all be back in court on September 13th for the next hearing on this case.

TMC NEWS has requested time with Lorain Police Chief Cel Rivera to discuss this case. We will bring that interview to you if we are given the opportunity.