Councilman Polensek’s letter threatens drug suspect, mother says
Susan Vinella
Plain Dealer Reporter
The mother of a drug-trafficking suspect accuses City Councilman Mike Polensek of threatening her son in a letter that refers to the 18-year-old as a “crack dealing piece of trash” and closes with “go to jail or the cemetery soon.”
Polensek sent the letter earlier this month after Arsenio T. Winston was arrested and charged with selling drugs near a convenience store in Polensek’s East Side neighborhood.
The longtime councilman said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he often writes blunt letters to troublemakers in his neighborhood and makes no apologies for the one to Winston.
“I’m fed up and the people in my neighborhood are fed up,” Polensek said. “There’s no political correctness left in me.”Winston’s mother, Tonya Lewis, said she plans to speak to her attorney, former City Council President George Forbes, about filing a lawsuit against Polensek. She said she also has written a letter to black activist the Rev. Al Sharpton.