4 sue over arrests during protest

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

Four people arrested by Cleveland police during a protest in May over the acquittal of a police officer claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that they didn’t hear orders to disperse or could not leave because officers in riot gear had trapped them in a downtown alley.

The four — a medical student, a college journalism major, a convenience- store cashier and an environmental activist — said in the lawsuit filed by the ACLU that they were held for two days in city jails despite judges being on call the night of May 23 to process anyone arrested during widely expected demonstrations.

The protests came after a judge acquitted patrolman Michael Brelo on manslaughter charges for his role in a deadly 137-shot barrage of police gunfire in 2012 that killed two unarmed black people.