CLEVELAND — One of two former East Cleveland police officers on trial facing corruption charges took the witness stand Monday, admitting he filled out false police reports and forged other officers’ signatures but claimed it was entrapment.
Von Harris and former officer Demarkco Johnson face 16 charges, including fraud, bribery, forgery and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
“Did you commit a crime?” Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Gregory Mussman asked Von Harris.
“I made a mistake,” said Harris. “I’ll say that I made a mistake. A grave mistake.”
Prosecutors said Harris and Johnson conspired to take hundreds of dollars from an FBI informant in exchange for falsified police reports in the Summer of 2018.
That informant was George Michael Riley, who prosecutors said illegally operated a landfill in East Cleveland and collected millions of dollars in demolition jobs as he paid off city employees.
“He kept pressuring me about the report,” said Harris. “Kept pressuring me. You know, ‘I need the recovery report, need the recovery report for insurance. I need it. I need it.”
Harris testified by that time, he hadn’t been a police officer in months and was working as an office manager for Riley.
On the witness stand, Harris took the fall and told the jury he was the one who wrote up the falsified reports and signed other officers’ names to them.
But Harris also stressed those reports were never submitted to the police department and were never used by Riley to collect on any insurance policy.
Instead, Riley gave the reports to the FBI as part of the operation investigating corruption in East Cleveland.
Harris also said it was Riley, while working with the FBI, who wanted to put cash in the hands of active police officers and told the jury he believed the whole case was entrapment.
He also told jurors that Johnson knew nothing about the fake reports or forgeries and that Harris tricked Johnson into taking money from Riley.
“I feel bad for getting Demarkco and anybody else caught up in this,” said Harris.
After four days of testimony, the jury is expected to get the case Tuesday and begin deliberating the fates of the two former police officers.
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