All three are facing multiple charges, including aggravated rioting and assault, or felonious assault.
In court, the prosecution alleged Merriweather and Matthews caused the fight that day.
CPD Detective Barnabas Blank was brought in to speak about what investigators have learned so far. Blank said Merriweather and Matthews coordinated an attack on others involved in the fight.
He said surveillance footage viewed by police showed Merriweather walking up to one of the co-defendants and whispering something to him, before walking away. From there, Blank said it appeared Merriweather and the co-defendant argued and the fight broke out; Blank alleged Merriweather struck one person in the side of the face from behind during the fight.
“So this was more of, kind of like an ambush,” said Blank.
Blank said Merriweather’s actions are what sparked the fight, which then drew in more people after it began.
“This was like the catalyst that set almost everything else into motion from that point on,” said Blank.
Matthews’ attorney, Brandon Fox, disputed this version of events. He said Matthews was standing on a corner nearby when a man he didn’t know came up and asked for marijuana. Matthews gave him some just before a fight broke out down the sidewalk that Matthews then attempted to break up, Fox said.
When Matthews walked back to his vehicle, he found the same man from earlier kicking it, according to Fox.
“That’s when — and this clip does exist on social media, it doesn’t paint the whole picture — this white individual reaches over, says ‘that’s your car?’ and slaps my client in the face,” said Fox. “That person threw the first punch.”
Prosecutors argued Matthews was seen on video kicking people and repeatedly jumping back into the fight, visibly enraged. However, Blank conceded that Matthews was hit in the face before then.
“The victim comes up and mugs him in the face,” said Blank.
“The victim mugs the defendant?” asked the judge.
“Yes, he absolutely does, 100% and we are looking into that,” said Blank. “But we found another video that predates that one, where there is some kind of fight that happens even before that, where he is squared up with a gentleman prior to.”
Blank agreed, however, that investigators believe Matthews was trying to break up a fight in that moment — not start one — but Blank said “when he gets mugged in the face, everything goes south from there.”
Vernon is the defendant least connected to the origins of the fight, but she interjected herself into the brawl for no reason that law enforcement could discern, Blank said.
Video viewed by police showed that Vernon was watching the fight from the side before she jumps in and punches a woman who was trying to protect another person on the ground, according to Blank. That woman was then punched in the face by another person, who knocked her unconscious, Blank said.
According to Blank, however, that woman is no longer in Cincinnati, because she was here from Russia and has since returned.
The judge ordered Merriweather be held on a $500,000 bond. Matthews was given a $100,00 bond, but he will be arraigned again Thursday for an additional charge, so that bond could change. Vernon was given a $150,000 bond.
Cincinnati Police Chief Teresa Theetge said in a press conference Monday that police received one phone call about a fight at the intersection of Fourth and Elm streets at 3:06 a.m. Saturday. By the time officers arrived at 3:12 a.m., Theetge said all of the people injured in the fight were still at the scene, but many others had left.
Theetge said all victims and suspects have been identified and five people have been charged, calling for people involved to turn themselves in.
Videos showing multiple angles of the attack were shared online, garnering national attention over the weekend. However, Theetge said the videos online do not provide the full story.
Theetge said anyone who “placed their hands on somebody in an attempt to cause harm” will face consequences.
“I don’t care which side of the incident, the fight, they were on ... that’s unacceptable,” Theetge said.
The police chief said officers are also looking into whether some of the people involved were over-served at local bars or restaurants, saying it is clear alcohol played a part in the fight.
The CPD chief did chastise both social media users and more traditional media outlets’ roles in the spread of narratives around the fight “without factual context.”
“Social media, in the posts that we’ve seen, does not depict the entire incident,” she said. “That is one version of what occurred.”
We asked Theetge why the first press conference with police was held after 4:30 p.m. Monday, when the fight happened early Saturday morning.
She said the department needed to allow investigators time to collect information.
“To say something too soon is absolutely irresponsible, and I do not want to be a part of that irresponsibility,” she said.