Three members of the Cleveland activist group New Era are suing for alleged civil rights violations tied to their arrest and trial last year.
Antoine Tolbert, Austreeia Everson and Rameer Askew are alleging malicious prosecution, fabrication or destruction of evidence and other civil rights violations in a lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Ohio Tuesday.
Cleveland Division of Police Detective Timothy Hannon along with the city of Cleveland are named in the suit, which describes last year’s trial as an attempt “to punish Plaintiffs for exercising their constitutional rights in a manner that Defendants personally disliked, politically resented, and regarded as a challenge to their authority, image, and pocketbooks.”
Tolbert, Everson and Askew were acquitted in 2025 of more than a dozen charges, including extortion, kidnapping and menacing.
The case began with Tolbert’s arrest in August, 2024, in the middle of a high-profile boycott of gas stations on the East Side of Cleveland, shortly after a news story on Channel 8 depicted the start of the boycott as “like Russia was taking over.”
Unrelated charges were added against Everson and Askew in 2025. Everson’s charges were based on an attempted mediation with gas station representatives following Tolbert’s arrest. Askew was charged for his involvement in an earlier attempt, with Tolbert, to stop the sale of marijuana to a minor.
Both incidents were recorded. In the case of the attempted mediation, other participants who were not charged but called as witnesses by the prosecution disputed the depiction of the incident as an attempt to intimidate and extort the gas station owners. In the case of the marijuana sale, the alleged dealer and victim of kidnapping refused to answer questions on the stand after being called as a prosecution witness.
The plaintiffs argue the charges were retaliation against New Era’s community activism, including armed safety patrols and the gas station boycott, and were encouraged by police leadership, including Chief Annie Todd.
“Once the matter reached higher levels of command, including the Chief of Police, City officials did not de-escalate or correct the investigation but instead directed or encouraged a more aggressive investigative posture,” the lawsuit said.
The city did not provide comment on the lawsuit.
Det. Hannon led the investigation into the New Era members and was featured prominently during the trial. During his testimony, the defense played audio recordings that appeared to show Hannon targeting Tolbert for prosecution in retaliation for his work and for a 2022 lawsuit against the city.
“Where others saw lawful protest activity, Hannon saw an opportunity to stop someone he thought was ‘a vigilante’ who ‘doesn’t need police,’ who ‘brainwashed’ people, and who ‘believes that he’s like a Muhammad or a Jesus,’” the lawsuit alleges.
