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Tom Merriman (journalist)

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Tom Merriman is an American lawyer and former investigative journalist in Cleveland, Ohio.

Education

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Merriman earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1984. He earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1988.[1][2][3]

Investigative journalism career

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Merriman was an investigative journalist in Cleveland for 14 years. He worked for WEWS-TV (News 5) from 1995 to 2001, then moved to WJW-TV (Fox 8) until 2008.[1][3]

In 2001, following the September 11 attacks, he produced a series of reports investigating Cleveland Imam Fawaz Damrah, discovering the imam had ties to several of the bombers in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and raised funds for terrorist organizations.[3][4][5]

In 2002, he reported a story involving the United States military and prostitution in South Korea. Wearing a hidden camera, he walked into bars and brothels near Camp Casey, documenting U.S. military police protecting American soldiers who were paying for sex with trafficked women. The report led to Congressional hearings and an investigation by the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Beginning in 2004, Merriman reported on fraud, waste and mismanagement in the Cleveland Municipal School District's transportation department under the leadership of CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, including inflated ridership figures, school buses being used to run personal errands, and an excessively large number of spare school bus drivers. The series, "School Bus Bloat," won a duPont-Columbia Silver Baton Award and the I.R.E. Medal from Investigative Reporters & Editors.[5][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]

In 2006, he was profiled in a PBS documentary, "The Best of Broadcast Journalism."[3][21]

In other stories, Merriman reported on EMS ambulances being tied up on "ridiculous calls" while patients in need had to wait, and donned a disguise to document treatment of the homeless by police and private security forces.[5]

Merriman has won 38 Emmy Awards for his work in local news.[3][22][23]

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Merriman was managing attorney of the Ohio Attorney General's Cleveland office from 1991 to 1994.[3]

After leaving WJW-TV, he went into private practice.[3][1]

In 2011, he represented a family in Chagrin Falls who were forced to move from their home after it started to slide down the hill it was built on, tying it to construction on a condominium project below their property.[24]

In 2018, he represented families who lost frozen eggs or embryos after a storage tank malfunctioned at University Hospitals Fertility Center.[25][26][27][28][29][30][31]

In 2019, he represented a man who was badly burned after the vape device in his pocket exploded.[32]

Also in 2019, he represented a man who was injured when a tow truck lifted the car he was in high into the air and flipped it into oncoming traffic on the highway.[33]

In 2022, Merriman represented customers of Cleveland Public Power in a class-action lawsuit that claimed they had been routinely over-charged on their electric bills.[34][35][36]

In 2009, Merriman made the news after displaying a "Fox 8 News" sign in his car to use media parking for a court appearance – despite the fact he was no longer a reporter. He took the incident in stride, noting he was "guilty as charged."[37]

Return to television

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In 2019, Merriman returned to WJW-TV as a contributor, making occasional appearances to discuss legal issues. He has taken part in a regular feature on "New Day Cleveland" called "Case or Not a Case?" In the segment, Merriman presents a series of hypothetical scenarios, asking whether there is a potential personal injury case.[38][39][40][41]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Washington, Julie (October 12, 2008). "I-Team reporter leaps to law firm". The Plain Dealer. Cleveland, Ohio. p. E7. Retrieved November 30, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Monczunsk, John (Winter 2005–2006). "Domers in the news". Notre Dame Magazine. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Tom Merriman". LinkedIn. October 22, 2024. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  4. ^ Merriman, Tom (May–June 2003). "Imam Uproar: Imam's history hurts credibility on local scene" (PDF). The IRE Journal. 26 (3): 23, 29–30 – via Investigative Reporters and Editors.
  5. ^ a b c d "I-Team's best stories: Most memorable moments of Tom Merriman". Fox 8. May 6, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  6. ^ "Korea/Human Trafficking After Trip Report" (PDF). Rumsfeld.com. March 7, 2003. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  7. ^ "Smith Lauds DoD's Anti-Trafficking Initiative". Chris Smith. 2004-02-04. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  8. ^ U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services and Committee on International Relations (2006). "Trafficking in Persons". DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  9. ^ Subcommittee of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Senate Foreign Relations Committee (April 9, 2003). "Trafficking of Women and Children in East Asia and Beyond: A Review of U.S. Policy" (PDF). United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  10. ^ "- THE ONGOING TRAGEDY OF INTERNATIONAL SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING: AN OVERVIEW". www.govinfo.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  11. ^ Parsons, Brian (Spring 2006). "Significant Steps or Empty Rhetoric? Current Efforts by the United States to Combat Sexual Trafficking near Military Bases". Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights. 4 (3): 567–589 – via Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Scholarly Commons.
  12. ^ "Does U.S. abet Korean sex trade?". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  13. ^ Shiveley, Michael; Kliorys, Kristina; Wheeler, Kristin; Hunt, Dana (April 30, 2012). "A National Overview of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Efforts" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  14. ^ "School Bus Bloat," WJW, Cleveland, Ohio | 2006 duPont-Columbia Award Winner. Retrieved 2024-10-22 – via vimeo.com.
  15. ^ "Index". duPont-Columbia Awards. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  16. ^ "2005 Award Winners". Investigative Reporters and Editors. 2006. Archived from the original on April 17, 2020.
  17. ^ hdcoadmin (2011-09-06). "Back to school with data and documents". Investigative Reporters & Editors. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  18. ^ "IRE members receive top industry honors" (PDF). The IRE Journal. 28 (3): 5, 41. 2005 – via Investigative Reporters & Editors.
  19. ^ "Barbara Byrd Bennett corruption a pattern - Substance News". www.substancenews.net. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  20. ^ "A look at when the I-Team dug deep into Barbara Byrd-Bennett's record in Cleveland". Fox 8. October 9, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  21. ^ Merriman Legal (2019-08-28). PBS Profile of Cleveland Investigative Reporter Tom Merriman. Retrieved 2024-10-22 – via YouTube.
  22. ^ "53rd Annual Central Great Lakes Emmy Awards Recipients" (PDF). National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences - Central Great Lakes Chapter. June 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  23. ^ "Tom Merriman, Attorney, Cleveland, OH". Merriman Legal, LLC. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  24. ^ Lindsay Betz, Sun News (2011-05-03). "Chagrin Falls family files lawsuit against Orange Street condominium developers". cleveland. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  25. ^ LaMotte, Sandee (2018-03-13). "'Our future family ... gone': Parents grieve lost embryos". CNN. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  26. ^ Post, Washington (2018-08-24). "When frozen embryos are destroyed, the losses — and legal repercussions — prove hard to measure". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  27. ^ Goldstein, Amy; Eunjung Cha, Ariana (March 12, 2018). "Patients mobilize to take legal action against fertility clinics with malfunctions". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  28. ^ Zhang, Sarah (2018-04-05). "Can Lost Embryos Give Rise to a Wrongful-Death Suit?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  29. ^ "Tom Merriman breaks down U.H. Fertility Center case". wkyc.com. 2018-03-12. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  30. ^ "Couple's hope to have biological child vanishes". News 5 Cleveland WEWS. 2018-03-13. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  31. ^ "Attorneys weigh in on new details in UH incident". News 5 Cleveland WEWS. 2018-04-10. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  32. ^ "'He was on fire': Man badly burned after vape battery explodes in his pocket at work". FOX 11 Los Angeles. 2019-06-28. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  33. ^ "'Unbelievable' video shows tow truck flip car into oncoming traffic with driver still inside". WGNO. August 27, 2019. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  34. ^ Courtney Astolfi, cleveland com (2022-11-27). "Inside Cleveland's last-ditch efforts to fight CPP class-action lawsuit". cleveland. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  35. ^ "CPP customers alleging billing over-charges are concerned their lawsuit could go to arbitration and not a jury". News 5 Cleveland WEWS. 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  36. ^ Gallek, Ed; Gallek, Peggy (September 23, 2022). "Local power customers take on city hall, fighting for $100 Million: I-Team". Fox 8. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  37. ^ Michael K. McIntyre, The Plain Dealer (2009-06-01). "Tom Merriman gets a taste of his own medicine: Michael K. McIntyre's Tipoff". cleveland. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  38. ^ Mark Dawidziak, The Plain Dealer (2019-09-17). "Monday, Merriman and Meyer returning to Channel 8's I-Team". cleveland. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
  39. ^ "Tom Merriman tells us if it's legal". Fox 8. February 27, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  40. ^ "Case Or Not A Case?". Fox 8. November 23, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
  41. ^ "Merriman Legal". YouTube. Retrieved 2024-10-22.
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