Tom Merriman (journalist) explained

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

Education

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

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.

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.[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.[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.[14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20]

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

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

Legal career

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

After leaving WJW-TV, he went into private practice.

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

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]

Notes and References

  1. News: Washington . Julie . October 12, 2008 . I-Team reporter leaps to law firm . November 30, 2024 . The Plain Dealer . E7 . Cleveland, Ohio . Newspapers.com.
  2. News: Monczunsk . John . Winter 2005–2006 . Domers in the news . October 22, 2024 . Notre Dame Magazine.
  3. Web site: October 22, 2024 . Tom Merriman . October 22, 2024 . LinkedIn.
  4. Merriman . Tom . May–June 2003 . Imam Uproar: Imam's history hurts credibility on local scene . The IRE Journal . 26 . 3 . 23, 29–30 . Investigative Reporters and Editors.
  5. News: May 6, 2019 . I-Team's best stories: Most memorable moments of Tom Merriman . October 22, 2024 . Fox 8.
  6. Web site: March 7, 2003 . Korea/Human Trafficking After Trip Report . October 22, 2024 . Rumsfeld.com.
  7. Web site: 2004-02-04 . Smith Lauds DoD's Anti-Trafficking Initiative . 2024-10-22 . Chris Smith . en.
  8. Web site: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services and Committee on International Relations . 2006 . Trafficking in Persons . October 22, 2024 . DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
  9. Web site: 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 . October 22, 2024 . United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
  10. Web site: - THE ONGOING TRAGEDY OF INTERNATIONAL SLAVERY AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING: AN OVERVIEW . 2024-10-22 . www.govinfo.gov.
  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 . Northwestern Pritzker School of Law Scholarly Commons.
  12. Web site: Does U.S. abet Korean sex trade? . 2024-10-22 . Tampa Bay Times . en.
  13. Web site: Shiveley . Michael . Kliorys . Kristina . Wheeler . Kristin . Hunt . Dana . April 30, 2012 . A National Overview of Prostitution and Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Efforts . October 22, 2024 . U.S. Department of Justice.
  14. "School Bus Bloat," WJW, Cleveland, Ohio 2006 duPont-Columbia Award Winner . en . 2024-10-22 . vimeo.com.
  15. Web site: Index . 2024-10-22 . duPont-Columbia Awards . en-US.
  16. Web site: 2006 . 2005 Award Winners . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417141204/https:/www.ire.org/awards/ire-awards/winners/2005-ire-awards-winners#schoolbus . April 17, 2020 . Investigative Reporters and Editors.
  17. Web site: hdcoadmin . 2011-09-06 . Back to school with data and documents . 2024-10-22 . Investigative Reporters & Editors . en-US.
  18. 2005 . IRE members receive top industry honors . The IRE Journal . 28 . 3 . 5, 41 . Investigative Reporters & Editors.
  19. Web site: Barbara Byrd Bennett corruption a pattern - Substance News . 2024-10-22 . www.substancenews.net.
  20. News: October 9, 2015 . A look at when the I-Team dug deep into Barbara Byrd-Bennett's record in Cleveland . October 22, 2024 . Fox 8.
  21. PBS Profile of Cleveland Investigative Reporter Tom Merriman . 2019-08-28 . Merriman Legal . 2024-10-22 . YouTube.
  22. Web site: June 2022 . 53rd Annual Central Great Lakes Emmy Awards Recipients . October 22, 2024 . National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences - Central Great Lakes Chapter.
  23. Web site: Tom Merriman, Attorney, Cleveland, OH . 2024-10-22 . Merriman Legal, LLC . en-US.
  24. Web site: Lindsay Betz . Sun News . 2011-05-03 . Chagrin Falls family files lawsuit against Orange Street condominium developers . 2024-10-22 . cleveland . en.
  25. Web site: LaMotte . Sandee . 2018-03-13 . 'Our future family ... gone': Parents grieve lost embryos . 2024-10-22 . CNN . en.
  26. Web site: Post . Washington . 2018-08-24 . When frozen embryos are destroyed, the losses — and legal repercussions — prove hard to measure . 2024-10-22 . Chicago Tribune . en-US.
  27. News: Goldstein . Amy . Eunjung Cha . Ariana . March 12, 2018 . Patients mobilize to take legal action against fertility clinics with malfunctions . October 22, 2024 . The Washington Post.
  28. Web site: Zhang . Sarah . 2018-04-05 . Can Lost Embryos Give Rise to a Wrongful-Death Suit? . 2024-10-22 . The Atlantic . en.
  29. Web site: 2018-03-12 . Tom Merriman breaks down U.H. Fertility Center case . 2024-10-22 . wkyc.com . en-US.
  30. Web site: 2018-03-13 . Couple's hope to have biological child vanishes . 2024-10-22 . News 5 Cleveland WEWS . en.
  31. Web site: 2018-04-10 . Attorneys weigh in on new details in UH incident . 2024-10-22 . News 5 Cleveland WEWS . en.
  32. Web site: 2019-06-28 . 'He was on fire': Man badly burned after vape battery explodes in his pocket at work . 2024-10-22 . FOX 11 Los Angeles . en-US.
  33. News: August 27, 2019 . 'Unbelievable' video shows tow truck flip car into oncoming traffic with driver still inside . October 22, 2024 . WGNO.
  34. Web site: Courtney Astolfi . cleveland com . 2022-11-27 . Inside Cleveland's last-ditch efforts to fight CPP class-action lawsuit . 2024-10-22 . cleveland . en.
  35. Web site: 2022-09-27 . CPP customers alleging billing over-charges are concerned their lawsuit could go to arbitration and not a jury . 2024-10-22 . News 5 Cleveland WEWS . en.
  36. News: Gallek . Ed . Gallek . Peggy . September 23, 2022 . Local power customers take on city hall, fighting for $100 Million: I-Team . October 22, 2024 . Fox 8.
  37. Web site: Michael K. McIntyre . The Plain Dealer . 2009-06-01 . Tom Merriman gets a taste of his own medicine: Michael K. McIntyre's Tipoff . 2024-10-22 . cleveland . en.
  38. Web site: Mark Dawidziak . The Plain Dealer . 2019-09-17 . Monday, Merriman and Meyer returning to Channel 8's I-Team . 2024-10-22 . cleveland . en.
  39. News: February 27, 2023 . Tom Merriman tells us if it's legal . October 22, 2024 . Fox 8.
  40. News: November 23, 2021 . Case Or Not A Case? . October 22, 2024 . Fox 8.
  41. Web site: Merriman Legal . 2024-10-22 . YouTube . en.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tom Merriman (journalist)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2025, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.