Activist’s grandson gets 6 months jail for drugs

Gerald Emmerson Rose Jr.

After re­ceiv­ing the ad­vice to do what his prom­i­nent grand­father would want him to do, Ger­ald Rose, Jr., was hand­cuffed in Lu­cas County Com­mon Pleas Court on Tues­day for a stay in jail.

Rose, 22, of 2505 Briar Lane was sen­tenced to three years com­mu­nity con­trol, in­clud­ing six months at the Cor­rec­tions Center of North­west Ohio fol­lowed by six months in work re­lease. He had pleaded guilty last month to at­tempted ag­gra­vated traf­fick­ing in drugs af­ter be­ing found in pos­ses­sion of drugs when stopped by po­lice.

Judge My­ron Du­hart told Rose that he knew his fam­ily, in­clud­ing his grand­father, the Rev. Floyd Rose, a long­time civil rights ac­tiv­ist who preached against vi­o­lence. Rose’s father, Ger­ald Rose, Sr., formed the At­lanta-based New Order Na­tional Human Rights Or­ga­ni­za­tion, a civil rights group.

The judge said he be­lieved that Rose was try­ing to use his name to get a pass.

“Your grand­father was in­volved in this com­mu­nity a great deal,” Judge Du­hart told Rose. “… You be­lieve that be­cause your name is what it is, you can get away with what­ever you want. It doesn’t work like that.”

Rose ad­mit­ted dur­ing his Sept. 25 plea hear­ing that he was driv­ing a car near North Detroit and Dura av­e­nues April 17 when he was pulled over af­ter al­most col­lid­ing with a po­lice car.

Found in the ve­hi­cle were two false-bot­tomed con­tain­ers with 18 Ec­stasy pills.

Rose, who has a fel­ony con­vic­tion in Geor­gia, was on pro­ba­tion at the time of the in­ci­dent in Toledo Munic­i­pal Court for a mis­de­meanor men­ac­ing charge.

Say­ing that he was work­ing to­ward his GED and help­ing to raise his girl­friend’s 4-year-old son, Rose told Judge Du­hart he is “just try­ing to do bet­ter.”

As­sis­tant County Pros­e­cu­tor Mat­thew Simko pointed out that this was Rose’s third fel­ony con­vic­tion, which in­cluded mul­ti­ple gun vi­o­la­tions, and that in the time since he was ar­rested with the drugs, he was charged and con­victed in Toledo Munic­i­pal Court with in­cit­ing vi­o­lence dur­ing an Au­gust in­ci­dent in which his brother, Co­rey Dot­son, 27, was shot in the ab­do­men.

Rose en­tered a plea to the mis­de­meanor and was placed on pro­ba­tion.

Judge Du­hart said Rose’s record in­di­cated that he didn’t “get it.”

He said he hoped time be­hind bars would give Rose time to think.

In ad­di­tion to jail time, Rose was or­dered to be screened for men­tal con­di­tions, un­dergo an­ger man­age­ment, and earn his GED. The judge noted that if he vi­o­lates his com­mu­nity con­trol, Rose could be sen­tenced to prison for 18 months.

“You’ve got de­ci­sions to make. I’m go­ing to give you time to do that,” the judge said.

“You’re not go­ing to walk out of this court­room. If you thought you were, you were mis­taken.”

Con­tact Erica Blake at: eblake@the­blade.com or 419-213-2134.