Suspect In Alleged Racially Motivated Cincinnati Beatdown Indicted On Federal Charges

The suspected instigator in the racially motivated Cincinnati brawl that left a single mother unconscious is now facing federal drug charges. The latest indictment comes on top of the avalanche of criminal charges he is facing in connection with the brawl.

Jermaine Mathews, 39, was indicted for conspiracy and intent to distribute a staggering “40 grams or more of fentanyl,” the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced in a press release earlier this week. He was also charged with “operating a premises on Kenton Street in Cincinnati for the purpose of trafficking narcotics,” alongside three co-conspirators, the release added.

“Mathews, who was described as a primary ‘coordinator’ of the July 26 brawl in downtown Cincinnati, was on bond after being charged locally with aggravated riot and assault,” prosecutors said.

The violent offender was rearrested by federal agents with assistance from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Matthews was among the eight suspects who have been hit with a wide range of charges for their alleged roles in the violent beatdown that nearly killed a woman.

The woman — identified only as Holly — was knocked unconscious when the back of her head violently hit the pavement. Blood could be seen pooling out of the victim’s nose almost immediately in what was miraculously not a fatal attack.

Holly, a white woman, was savagely beaten by a mob of black attackers outside a Cincinnati nightclub while she was celebrating a friend’s birthday shortly after 3 a.m. local time last month. At the behest of “community leaders,” the city district attorney’s office brought charges against Alex Tchervinski, who was also beaten by the mob.

“Community leaders” claimed he shouted racial slurs at the black attackers and demanded he be prosecuted on the basis of race. A total of seven additional attackers, all of them black, have been arrested and charged for their involvement in the attack, local outlet WLWT5 reported.

Matthews, who was arraigned on August 14, is the second person arrested in connection with the attack to be hit with unrelated federal changes. Montianez Merriweather, 34, was also federally charged with illegally possessing a firearm as a previously convicted felon on August 13, according to a report from the New York Post.