The prosecution of five white police supervisors in a predominantly black suburb for failing to stop a car chase that ended with two black people being killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire was put on hold Thursday by a state appeals court.
 
Attorneys for the supervisors filed a complaint with the Eighth District Court of Appeals on Wednesday arguing that the misdemeanor dereliction of duty charges filed against the supervisors in county court last year have priority over an identical set of charges filed last week in East Cleveland.

An initial appearance in East Cleveland Municipal Court scheduled for Friday has been canceled. A trial for the supervisors in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court is scheduled to begin July 27.

Attorneys for the supervisors have said they believe race is behind county prosecutor Tim McGinty's push to have the case tried in East Cleveland, where the lone judge is black and a jury pool would come from a population that is 93 percent black. In comparison, about 30 percent of Cuyahoga County's residents are black, as are about 53 percent of Cleveland's residents.

Attorney Susan Gragel, who filed the complaint on behalf of the supervisors, said Thursday that she expects the appeals court to rule that the case should remain in county court.