A former Cincinnati police officer and his family say they were libeled by The Cincinnati Enquirer and Cincinnati Police Department in a story Saturday.

        They seek $10 million in damages in a lawsuit filed Monday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court by attorney Kenneth Lawson.

        The lawsuit accuses the newspaper of incorrectly identifying Deangelo Williams, a South Fairmount man arrested Thursday, as the son of Clarence D. Williams III, a former Cincinnati police officer and past president of the Sentinels, a black officers organization.

        The identification was included in a story written by reporter Jane Prendergast, who also is named in the suit - along with unidentified city police officers who “gave Prendergast the information purported to be fact,” the lawsuit says.

        The lawsuit says Deangelo Williams, 24, is not the son of the elder Mr. Williams, who now works as a police chief in Florida.

        It accuses the newspaper of actual malice and contends it is working with police department employees to subvert Issue 5, an amendment to the city charter that allows city officials to conduct nationwide searches for Cincinnati's police and fire chiefs and other top officials. Issue 5 was passed by voters last November.

        “These individuals, along with Chief of Police Thomas Streicher, are against Issue 5 and they do not want to see African-American officers rise to the level of assistant chief or chief of police for the city of Cincinnati,” the lawsuit alleges.

        It also states Clarence Williams III, now police chief for Riviera Beach, Fla., would be “an excellent candidate to take the place of Lt. Col. Ron Twitty as an assistant police chief.”

        Col. Twitty is in the process of retiring after he was found guilty Sept. 10 of attempting to obstruct official business, a misdemeanor, in a case that involved damage to his city-owned vehicle.

        The suit also accuses the newspaper of “a custom and policy of presenting African-American males in a negative light.”

        The plaintiffs are Clarence D. Williams III; his son, Clarence D. Williams IV; Carolyn Williams, a Cincinnati police sergeant and the mother of Clarence Williams IV; and Evelyn J. Williams, grandmother of Clarence Williams IV.

        Enquirer Publisher and President Harry M. Whipple said the newspaper has received the lawsuit. “We will respond accordingly,” he said.

        Cincinnati police spokesman Lt. Kurt Byrd referred comments to the city's legal department. “We are not aware of the facts behind the suit,” he said.

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