The white male seen on video slapping a black male’s face just moments before last month’s Cincinnati mob attack has been charged, WLWT-TV reported.
Police said the 45-year-old white male was ordered to appear next Tuesday in Hamilton County Municipal Court, the station said.
‘We still question the fairness in charging based on the information we have seen and the conversations we have had.’
While police didn’t release the suspect’s name, noting he’s a mob attack victim and that Marsy’s Law prevents authorities from releasing his identity, WLWT said it spoke with the suspect on the phone Tuesday night.
The station said Alex Tchervinski confirmed he’s facing the misdemeanor charge. WLWT said he’s been charged with disorderly conduct, a fourth-degree misdemeanor.
A cellphone video shows a white male and several black males squaring off before the mob attack begins. The video shows light physical contact between the white male and two black males, while others of both races appear to try to break things up. Then amid verbal sparring, the white male lightly slaps the face of a black male — and then the mob attack commences.
The above video and a second clip show the mob repeatedly stomping, kicking, and punching the white male while he’s lying in the street.
The station said its sources confirmed that the white male seen on video slapping the black male is Tchervinski.
In addition, a black male seen on a third cellphone video standing next to the face-slap victim appears to be the first individual to physically retaliate against the white male. As it happens, police are looking for another mob attack suspect, and the image cops released of this suspect appears to match the appearance of the male seen retaliating on video.
Cincinnati’s black leaders had been demanding charges against the white male who issued the slap.
“What incited and who incited the rioting? If the riot is because of a slap, who incited the rioting?” Rev. Damon Lynch said recently to a crowd at New Prospect Baptist Church, WXIX-TV reported.
BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock — who’s been commenting on the mob beatdown since it all unfolded late last month — blasted Cincinnati’s black leaders for their collective stance.
One of the clips Whitlock aired shows Rev. Lynch altering the lyrics of a Jim Croce song for his own purposes as he spoke to the crowd at church: “You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit in the wind, you don’t pull the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger, and you don’t slap a black man in the face.”
Whitlock responded to Lynch’s words by saying, “Why is he racializing this? It’s disrespectful to slap anyone, regardless of color, in the face. Is he saying … if a black person slaps a black person in the face, it’s OK? If a black gang member shoots a black man in the face, it’s OK? If a black gang member accidentally shoots some young black child, it’s OK? But everybody knows that you don’t slap a black man in the face, I guess, unless you’re black. He’s in a church talking about common street thugs — and I’ll include the white guy in that, because he … seemed to be trying to fight with someone. … [The reverend is] justifying to the people in that audience and other black people in Cincinnati that if you get slapped in the face by a white person, a gang of you all should jump on that man and beat up the woman. This is inside of a church! This is insanity; this is lack of humility.”
WLWT said Ken Kober, president of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police, is unhappy about the decision to charge Tchervinski: “The city administration is eroding the very fabric of the justice system with orders to prosecute those without probable cause. Cops are being used as political pawns. It’s disgusting.”
Chief Assistant Hamilton County Prosecutor Kip Guinan addressed the face slap, saying that it came after someone else was already beaten, not before, WXIX reported. Guinan also acknowledged that racial slurs are audible on some of the videos of the mob attack — however, he said the slurs were uttered “a minute and 47 seconds into the brutal beatdown,” the station reported.
“Were there words said? Yes. Were they inappropriate? Absolutely,” Guinan also noted, WXIX reported, before adding that “these poor people were being assaulted, stomped WWE-style, elbow-drops onto pavement. One woman was knocked out to the point her head hit the pavement. We could be here on a homicide.”
But WLWT said David Whitehead, president of the Cincinnati NAACP, released a statement which reads, in part: “We still question the fairness in charging based on the information we have seen and the conversations we have had. Street altercations typically result in disorderly conduct charges and … defendants [are] being charged beyond that.”
Prior to the charge against the white male, seven others — all of them black — have been charged in connection with the mob attack. Six of of the seven have been indicted on eight charges each: three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault, and two counts of aggravated riot. Those six face nearly 30 years in jail if convicted on all charges.
The two female suspects last week got big breaks from a judge who reduced their bonds of several hundred thousand dollars each down to $25,000 each, of which they owed just 10%. Fox News said the two females were released from jail Friday.
(L to R) Dekyra Vernon, Aisha Devaughn. Image source: Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff
The seventh suspect — 32-year-old Gregory Wright — was indicted Friday for aggravated riot and aggravated robbery, WXIX reported in another story, citing court records. Wright pleaded not guilty at his initial arraignment, the station said.
Police said in a criminal complaint that Wright “did by force rip the necklace off the victim while he was being assaulted by four or more co-defendants attempting to cause serious physical harm,” WXIX said, adding that a police flyer indicated Wright put the necklace in his pocket and then took video of the rest of the mob attack. Wright remained behind bars Wednesday morning, jail records show.
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Author: Dave Urbanski
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