East Cleveland mayor says '82 stabbing was self-defense

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported Saturday that long before she entered political life, the new mayor of East Cleveland, Saratha Goggins, stabbed a boyfriend to death.

Saratha Goggins told the newspaper on Thursday that she stabbed O’Neal Price, 48, to death in 1982.

Her disclosure came after the paper obtained a certified copy of a coroner’s report that says she admitted stabbing Price during a fight in the kitchen of his home on Sept. 30, 1982.

According to the Plain Dealer, Goggins would not discuss specifics but said she acted in self-defense.

Court records available for public inspection contain no mention of Goggins being prosecuted.

Goggins said in interviews she petitioned a judge to seal the records in September 1991. She recalled being convicted but said she could not remember the charge. She declined to say whether she was jailed or otherwise punished.

"It was an unfortunate incident that occurred in a time of my life," she said. "There is nothing I can do to change it."