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As the investigation into a viral beating in Cincinnati that shook the nation and has been described as “a racial issue” continues, a victim and multiple suspects are facing criminal charges.
In the early morning hours of July 26, a confrontation outside the LoVe nightclub, located on the corner of Fourth and Elm Street in the city’s downtown business district, led to a horrific beatdown that was captured on video.
The video circulated rapidly on social media, sparking fury as at least two White victims were pummeled into the ground by a group of Black suspects. Once on the ground, the suspects did not back off. Instead, they continued to stomp on the victims, one of whom was left with a life-altering brain issue.
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The fallout from the assault has thrown city leadership into turmoil, as Mayor Aftab Pureval was missing in action for several days following the incident, leading to the local Fraternal Order Police (FOP) unanimously voting no-confidence in him.
Meanwhile, suspects have been rounded up locally and across state lines. All have been charged at the state level, and some face serious federal charges.
Here is the status of each suspect:
Jermaine Mathews, 39: Federal custody
Mathews, who has been described by prosecutors as the “coordinator” of the brawl, is in federal custody after being arrested Monday on charges unrelated to the beatdown.
He has been charged federally with conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl and operating a premises for the purpose of trafficking narcotics.
Thursday, he appeared before a federal judge for a bond hearing, and his attorney Kara Blackney successfully argued that since he has no prior violent felony convictions and plenty of ties to the Cincinnati community, including three children and a business, he should be released from custody while awaiting trial on those charges.
However, federal prosecutors immediately appealed that decision, and as of Friday, Mathews remained in custody where he will stay until the appeal is heard.
Those drug charges arose after he posted a $270,000 bond and was released from local custody on the charges stemming from the fight: three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault and two counts of aggravated rioting.
Montianez Merriweather, 34: Local custody
After the July 26 melee, Merriweather was assessed a $250,000 bond on three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault and two counts of aggravated rioting.
He did not post bond.
On Aug. 13, he was charged federally with illegally possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon stemming from a July 2 incident.
Despite the federal charge, Hamilton County Jail records indicate that Merriweather is still being held in Cincinnati.
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Patrick Rosemond, 38: Local custody
Rosemond, who is the suspect accused of nearly beating a victim, Holly, to death, remains in local custody on a $500,000 bond for three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault and two counts of aggravated rioting.
He is described as a “main instigator” of the fight.
Holly revealed that she suffered “very bad brain trauma” during the attack, and is unsure the degree to which she will recover. She can be seen in the viral video being knocked unconscious and falling onto the pavement at the intersection of Fourth and Elm Street.
He was arrested in Georgia and hauled back to Cincinnati, where he was booked into the Hamilton County Jail on Aug. 14.
Gregory Wright, 32: Local custody
Wright was booked into the county jail on Aug. 11 on charges of aggravated riot and aggravated robbery.
He is accused of snatching a chain off of one of the victims during the beatdown before proceeding “to film the rest of the events.”
Wright has 22 prior arrests and two prior felony convictions, one for trafficking heroin and one for possessing a firearm as a prohibited person.
He is being held on $100,000 bond.
Dominique Kittle, 37: Local custody
Kittle has been charged with three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault and two counts of aggravated rioting and is being held on a $150,000 bond in the Hamilton County Jail.
At an Aug. 14 arraignment, he was ordered to remain in jail pending a mental health assessment. During that hearing, his attorney said he suffers from schizophrenia and has been found not guilty by way of insanity on previous charges.
Nonetheless, prosecutors called him a “grave danger to the community.”
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DeKyra Vernon, 24: Free on bond
Vernon is one of two female suspects who was arrested in connection with the attack. She faces three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault and two counts of aggravated rioting.
However, during her arraignment, her bond was dropped from $250,000 to $25,000 at 10%, with the judge citing her lack of a criminal history. She paid that bond and was released from jail with an electronic ankle monitor pending trial.
Aisha Devaughn, 26: Free on bond
Devaughn is also out on bond pending trial.
During her arraignment, her bond was lowered from $300,000 to $25,000 at 10%, which she later posted.
She faces three counts of felonious assault, three counts of assault and two counts of aggravated rioting.
An eighth person, 45-year-old Alex Tchervinski, a victim of the brawl, has been charged with disorderly conduct related to the assault.
Tchervinski can be seen in the viral video slapping one of the suspects, which his lawyer claims occurred after he had already been hit.
His lawyer, Douglas Brannon, said his client was allegedly hit in the head 28 times and robbed during the attack, while trying to protect his girlfriend and another friend during the melee.
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“What this has done, it has made Alex a victim now for the second time by bringing criminal charges against him,” Brannon told Fox News Digital. “What actually occurred is Alex was hit multiple times, before he slapped back in an attempt to try and defend himself and back off this group of thugs.”
Tchervinski’s arrest has become a point of contention between the police and the mayor’s office.
When the FOP voted no-confidence in Pureval earlier this week, they said Aftab also ordered the city solicitor to charge a White victim of the brutal beatdown with a crime “solely to appease racial tensions at the urging of a few community leaders.”
One of those community leaders, Reverend Damon Lynch, demanded that the victims be arrested at a press conference with Aftab in the week following the attack.
“For those who want to racialize it, then a black man stepped in between the combatants, separated them and said, ‘this is about stop fighting, everybody needs to chill,'” said Lynch, who is Black. “And then, for those who want to racialize it, the white man being steps back in the ring and slaps not the black man that he had just squared up with, but slaps another black man. So after that he was met with disproportionate force.”
“But when I see the mugshots, I only see people who look like me,” he said. “I don’t see the person who re-engaged. And so until we see all the mugshots, this is still a racial issue.”
Aftab agreed.
“I agree with Pastor Lynch, that there is no doubt that this public safety challenge, that this incident will require further investigation, further charges and further arrests for every single person involved,” he said.
It still remains unclear what exactly sparked the beatings, but the investigation remains ongoing. Police are currently searching for at least one more suspect.
Fox News’ Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.
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