;)
Friday
Jun202008
State Charges Dropped in Hope Steffey Case
Friday, June 20, 2008 at 4:10PM 
According to a grand jury, Stark County deputies committed no criminal acts while arresting Hope Steffey two years ago. Nancy H. Rogers, Ohio attorney general, issued a statement saying that a Stark County grand jury did not hand down any indictments after reviewing the evidence presented by the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation Special Prosecution Sections.
The Steffey case was investigtated by Paul Scarsella, the Chief of the Special Prosecutions Section for the Attorney General’s Office where he manages 4 attorneys and support staff. He was assisted by Bridget Carty, Public Integrity Unit Coordinator, and an Assistant Attorney General in the Special Prosecutions Section.
The Special prosecutors, Paul Scarsella and Bridget Carty, said the incident, in which male and female deputies forcibly removed Steffey's clothes at the Stark County jail, was a suicide precaution. They said the deputies were only following a medical order given by a doctor on duty to remove her clothes. Though the jail has suicide suits for inmates to wear, prosecutor Scarscella said Steffey was not immediately given one because even the suit was deemed too dangerous for her to have.
The Special prosecutors presented the results of their investigation to the grand jury without interviewing Hope Steffey. They said they were unwilling to interview her with her lawyers present, as she requested. Steffey did however appear before the grand jury. The grand jury declined to indict the deputies involved.
Steffey denied that she was suicidal or was given the opportunity to remove her clothes herself. There is no policy that prevents men from removing a female inmate's clothes during a suicide precaution situation. Men are however prevented from strip-searching a female inmate.
However, the findings of this grand jury will have no bearing on the federal lawsuit that Hope Steffey filed on Oct. 2007, accusing Stark County deputies of violating her civil rights by assaulting, strip-searching and leaving her injured and naked for six hours in a Stark County jail cell. She had to use toilet paper to cover herself. Defendants in the case are Swanson, Deputy Sheriff Richard T. Gurlea Jr. and one to 15 other "John and Jane Does" employed at the Stark County Jail, and the Stark County commissioners. That case is scheduled to go to trial in December.
Below is the video (in 2 parts) which documents Hope’s experience at the hands of the Stark County Sheriff’s Dept. The video is graphic (you’ve been warned!!)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daYBjfvEjfQ&eurl=http://shadmia.com/2008/02/14/innocent-woman-strip-searched/]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDuuo0k9xXw&eurl=http://shadmia.com/2008/02/14/innocent-woman-strip-searched/]
Whether or not the videotape was presented to the state grand jury will probably never be known, since the deliberations of grand juries are held in secret. But it is certain to be part of the civil case to be heard in federal court. Steffey's attorneys are now under federal court order to not discuss the case. But they have argued that the force used by deputies, and seen on the videotape, was brutal and unnecessary.
Reader Comments (81)
Seriously first off thankyou john. I know quite a few have told you this, but I feel your diligence on this issue is truely outstanding. Second you are correct in fearing for your friends and relatives safety. When people see stuff like this happen it most certainly raises certain feeling of outrage that do not easily subside. The feeling of being helpless and taken advantage of dies hard.
Thanks Derek
This case just hit a nerve with me, and its unbelievable that this is still happening. And in fact the sheriff is on TV 'bragging' about having all kinds of naked inmates at his jail!!
As a small update I AGAIN called the Ohio Atty General's office and asked "WHAT do I have to do to get this abuse STOPPED at the Stark County jail"? I said there have been lawsuits paid out, and taxpayers are STILL at risk of having to pay out more for these outrageous abuses.
The woman there had to clarify what case I was talking about, that there hadn't been any calls recently about the case. She said they did have a letter about it, and that there is another "investigation" going on about this case.
I don't know if its really true or not, but thats what they passed on to me.
Will this investigation be better than the last??? Who knows?
I have been posting this on the net:
Hmm won't let me post phone numbers up here...I have been posting them so people can call and just ASK what it will take to stop the abuses at the Stark County jail.
Well, it finally happened to a white woman. An attractive blonde, no less. Good! I'm glad!
Don't get me wrong -- my heart goes out to Hope Steffey, and I hope her lawsuit bankrupts the whole county. What happened to her was wrong, and it exposes serious corruption in law enforcement that is FAR from the exception.
The reason I'm glad that it finally happened to an attractive blonde woman is because of the sad fact that most Americans don't care nor do they want to believe the hard truth about cops in general -- so long as it's only non-whites and males who are getting abused. Remember Rodney King, and how we all saw the video of him getting beaten to a pulp, but no one seemed to care, and most white people insisted that he must've deserved it? Now that it's happened to someone who is neither non-white nor male, maybe there won't be so many Americans (particularly white Americans) living in denial of the fact that our so-called cops are nothing more than criminals who happen to have badges to go with their guns.
John wrote: "After the prisoner was cuffed & shackled, he was moved to a new location. As fate would have it, his leg chains got tangled somehow at the top of the stairs…he didn’t grab the rail, because his hands were cuffed, and no guards were close enough to catch him…OOPS!
I don’t have a problem with this.
This was an already convicted felon, the attack was documented, and my friend was sure of the attacker’s identity.
Plus this wasn’t just a case of revenge, but a case of safety for every guard in there. These felons aren’t afraid of more time, so an attack has to be responded to quickly to show that no guard can be attacked without a consequence.
Its the only way to make it safe, and I understand the need."
John, I am shocked and dismayed by your comment. You make it abundantly clear that what happened to this inmate was no accident, and you go so far as to make excuses for an abusive prison guard.
...BUT -- this particular guard was your friend, and his victim was not a blonde female or a teenage girl, but a male and probably non-white.
You are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
John wrote: "Anyway, just wanted to point out that not ALL cops are like this."
I fail to see how you've made your point. All you've really done is to rationalize why your friends should be exempted from the rules that you insist should be enforced on Hope Steffey's attackers.
And I see this all the time -- the only difference between a "good cop" and a "corrupt cop" seems to be whether you know him well enough to get him to fix your traffic tickets.
Your phony outrage over Steffey's attack while defending your corrupt personal friends stands as an example of rank hypocrisy, and it reeks to high heaven.
If you really want to make a change for the better, you should remember that change begins at home. If you have not reported your friend to the authorities for bragging about pushing a shackled inmate down the stairs, then you have no place to comment on the Steffey case.
BTW -- in every prison system, there exist certain approved, standardized disciplinary practices (such as solitary confinement) that do not involve pushing the inmate down a flight of stairs (indeed, since prisoners are typically transported between floors on elevators, one is forced to wonder why your friend chose to use the stairs instead, if not for the sole purpose of facilitating an attack,) so your excusing your friend's reprehensible and criminal behavior as a necessary evil doesn't fly. He is no better than the felon he pushed down the stairs, and he belongs in prison, shackled alongside him.
Thank you so much for showing the public just how we arrived at such a sorry state in law enforcement. It is citizens like you who rationalize criminal police behavior who have made it so that people like Steffey's attackers can get away with their crimes simply by claiming that their conduct was "professional" and "by the book".
Gos I used that comment because some cops/corrections & the Stark County Sheriff, were implying that 'laymen' didn't understand the corrections system.
I understand why some things happen in the corrections system. And like I said the inmates aren't afraid of any "standardized disciplinary practices". But this Steffey case is also a whole other set of circumstances.
Hypocrisy? I don't know, if all those deputies in the Steffey video had been friends, I would have still been yelling for them to be fired & punished. And if ever anyone I do know is in a situation like this, I will do everything in my power to see that their certification is pulled and they are punished. (My outrage isn't phony.)
But I understand what you mean about cops covering for other cops, no matter what the circumstances.
I don't know if I can make the distinction while typing in text, sometimes its hard to get an idea across. Especially about something like looking at "laws".
Talk about hypocrisy!
A hundred years ago, drugs were all legal, but today people are sent to prison, sometimes for life, because NOW they are against the law.
Would you send your buddy to prison for life if he offered you a beer from a sixpack?
Well before prohibition, booze was legal, but then for 13 years, it was against the law. People went to prison for drinking, or making it. And during the depression there was a lot of incentive to have a still.
BUT now its legal again!!! So no one goes to prison for doing the same thing they did during prohibition. The morality of this never changed, only the laws governing it.
Thats why I have a problem with "hypocritical laws".
So I see your point that laws have been broken in either of these cases, but the circumstances/morality of them are worlds apart.
Anyway I hope this gives some insight to what I am trying to get across, even if you still don't agree with it. I hope it does ease some of the anger you have towards me over this.
But whatever, I am still not letting up the pressure on THIS case, in THESE circumstances, with THESE cops. Especially when I have talked to these people and I KNOW them for what they REALLY are.
I still get smoking when I think of the lies these people have handed me again & again.
Anyway got to run---later
*** A challenge to the producers of the Cops program, and to AMW's John Walsh ***
John Walsh does a wonderful job on America's Most Wanted showing that police officers have a difficult and dangerous job. He highlights those who have done outstanding work, and those who have died in the line of duty.
Anyone who cares about the great police officers in this country should be highly offended by what's going on in Stark County and in other places in this country where police are sullying the noble occupation of Police Officer. If I were a cop, I'd first be suspicious of the charges against the officers, because sometimes situations occur that are hard for the public to understand if you weren't there when it happened. But when a case is so clearly outrageous as the treatment of Hope Steffey, police officers everywhere should publicly support the victim, in order to defend their own reputations! John Walsh, please speak to the issue of bad cops, and promote ways to solve the problem. Objective, third-party oversight of the video systems used is one good suggestion I saw here. More psychological screening of officers-in-training is another idea. The first step to solving it is admitting that there is a problem!
I personally feel that some unstable characters slip through the cracks enough when in training for the job of police officer, and once they become cops, many others become addicted to the sense of power that comes with having total authority over another human being. This kind of abuse leads to problems like innocent people being afraid to talk to the police at all, even when the police just want help solving crimes.
I am personally terrified of police officers, yet I have never been arrested in my life, and have rarely had to deal with the police. My problem is that I can't tell by looking at an officer whether he/she is a safe, ethical defender of law and order (like most of them) or one of the rogue cops, like the Stark County officers who manhandled Hope Steffey.
Then we have the "Cops" program. Totally unbelievable. Here are police officers being filmed chasing down bad guys and gals, risking their lives in doing so, and being *excruciatingly* polite during the entire ordeal. It is SO FAKE that it make me sick. I know they are just performing for the camera when being polite and offering clear explanations for the arrest to the jerks they are handcuffing, yet I would prefer them to be realistic and cuss a bit at the guy who just rammed six other cars after trying to run down the officer who pulled the him over. (Maybe they do cuss and I just haven't seen enough episodes of it yet? Sure looks fake to me *every* time I watch that show.)
I get the impression that the politeness used on "Cops" is pure fiction, and the sadism performed on Hope Steffey and countless others is the non-fiction.
Hey "Cops" producers, why not devote a few minutes on each show presenting cases of those occasional "rogue" cops that insult the profession by their behavior, and show these cops receiving the justice they deserve. That's how you can make people feel safer around the police, rather than presenting this fake "polite officer" TV fiction. That's my challenge.
I look forward to other blog commenters to criticize my comments, as I probably have made mistakes in explaining my impression of these two TV shows.
QUOTE "It is SO FAKE that it make me sick. I know they are just performing for the camera when being polite"
Thats the exact impression I get when I look at the Steffey videos.
If I can slap you around, put you in cuffs, and stick you in the car, and -I- get to pick when to turn the camera on, I can make anyone look just as bad as Steffey did in her "arrest" video. This video was almost an hour long, and they edited everything but six minutes.
Let me do the same thing, assault you and then not respond to anything you say, until the end of the tape/ride. And then I can show some "real concern" for you at the very end, and make it look like I'm the good guy.
UPDATE After 5-6 months I have finally received more information from the Stark County sheriff's dept. I haven't had a chance to read it yet. They didn't send some of the stuff I specifically asked for. But it looks like they sent just enough to try to get me off their backs.
Looks as though they will delay long enough that the case is settled before I get the information I want.
UPDATE:
After 5-6 months of waiting for documents I finally got some in the mail. Of course I didn't get everything I asked for, and they blacked out some names on the reports.
The sheriff has always maintained that Steffey was ASKED to remove her cloths and refused.
According to the BCI document Steffey was NEVER asked to remove her cloths! This is from THEIR OWN REPORTS!!
So how the heck is the sheriff still selling this LIE?!!??!
Most of the "investigation" consists of them rubber stamping everything the cops allege as the truth, even as they find obvious lies from them.
The investigation says Nurse Coren Lennon is supposedly the one that said Steffey should be put on suicide precautions with no suit. The jail psychologist Thomas Anuszkiewicz just approved her evaluation, which doesn’t seem much like an ‘independent’ opinion, like he alleges.
It also says that the Stark County sheriff is aware of an FBI investigation into this.
Hopefully they won’t rubberstamp everything the sheriff’s dept says, and then present it as “proof”, like the last investigation.
Ok I scanned one page of the report. (Page 3)
Its only seven pages, so I'll probably do all of it later. But most of it is the sheriff's report, apparently spellchecked and presented as fact.
I'd have to read it again, to be sure, but I see NO mention of ANY testimony other than the police! Gee, wouldn't that make it one sided for SURE?!?!?
This is the BCI report that Agent Christy S. Palmer sent to John D. Ferrero, Prosecuting Attorney Stark County Ohio.
Dated April 16, 2008 BCI Case #: SI-76-08-14-0147
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...BCI-Report.jpg
This report says that, "as recorded by jail video", she "repeatedly tried to pull away from the officers" on the way to the cell.
So what the hell video was she watching?!?! I saw EIGHT people with a handcuffed woman, and I saw NO struggle. But even if there WAS, this in NO WAY excuses the way this was done.
And then they are not only using this as an excuse to NOT give her a chance to remover her cloths, but apparently as an excuse to not even tell her what is going on. (As we have all said before, but heres the indisputable PROOF!)
People mindlessly attack the news for supposedly a one sided report of the story, but I saw absolutely NO news reports that bring THIS up.
And that part about them bringing her to a SLOW, CONTROLLED decent to the floor.
How the frick would she know? The video isn't even there! (Let me guess, she took the cops word for it.)
Even though Steffey says they pushed her face into the floor, and in a call to her husband she says that she thinks they broke her nose, plus the Sheriff's dept even reports that the nurse treated Steffey for a "bruised nose".
So where the heck is THAT in this report!??!?
Grrrrrrrrrrrr
BTW I don't know why they bothered to black out the names of Nurse Coren Lennon and the jail psychologist Thomas Anuszkiewicz, aren't they PROUD of the work they do??
This was reported in the CantonRep paper. The link for it is now gone, but I have the whole artcile already saved. I also asked for the link to be updated, but got no response.
QUOTE “Two male deputies restrained Steffey, while a female deputy and a female corrections officer removed her clothes. Deputies said Steffey was told she would have to give up her clothes and was given the opportunity to remove them voluntarily. But none could recall who made those statements, according to the state investigation.” UNQUOTE
As you can see by the video, the statement about only women removing her cloths is a lie, and from the BCI report, apparently the part about them giving her a chance to remove her own cloths is also a lie.
So I guess depending on the papers for a 'independent & objective' report is a no-no.
They have the same mis-information printed as the sheriff's dept is handing out, and apparently they can see video evidence, and STILL print lies.
Grrrrrrrrr
John wrote: "I understand why some things happen in the corrections system. And like I said the inmates aren’t afraid of any 'standardized disciplinary practices'."
That's an excuse, and a pathetic excuse for an excuse at that.
Do you personally know any prison inmates? 'Cause I live in the (police) State of Texas, which means that half of the people I know have been to prison, and most of the other half have at least been to jail (including myself.) Have you heard their stories of "standardized disciplinary practices"? I have, and if you haven't, then your only so-called "knowledge" of whether they're afraid of standard discipline is based entirely on the say-so of a personal friend of yours who'd like to be able to justify the crime of pushing another human being down the stairs. Yeah, that's fair.
I can tell you from personal knowledge that most of the inmates in prison are at the very least afraid of picking up another case -- the only exception being lifers and those who have spent so much time in prison that they are no longer competent to survive in the free world (an unanticipated liability of a short-sighted "lock 'em up and throw away the key" approach to law enforcement.) As for lifers and long-termers, they are still very much afraid of the loss of priveleges and/or of being "tossed in the hole". Solitary confinement is no picnic -- there's a reason that there are laws limiting the number of consecutive days that a prisoner can be held in solitary: In the past, prisoners have gone mad in solitary confinement.
It just so happens that my ex and the mother of my child is one of the convicted felons who you seem to think are less than human, and undeserving of basic human rights like the right not to be pushed down the stairs without justice after the fact. As of the date of this writing, she's been on parole for about a year. She can tell you just what the prisoners are and aren't afraid of, because the memory of being one of them is still quite fresh in her mind. Just a few days ago, she was telling me about certain "standard" disciplinary procedures which had resulted in the deaths of several of her fellow inmates. (Lawsuits are pending in those cases -- I wonder if the cameras were working?)
And sure, she's my ex, so that means that at one point or another in my life I might've wanted to push her down a flight of stairs myself, but under no circumstances do I think that just because she's a convicted felon that she deserves to be pushed down a flight of stairs.
The term "convicted felon" does not mean "non-human", nor does it mean that a person no longer has the basic human right to be protected against being pushed down a flight of stairs -- much less while his or her hands and feet are shackled.
Oh, but wait -- this guy attacked your friend. Unprovoked? Are we to be so gullible as to believe that your friend was just standing there minding his own business and this guy just clobbered him out of nowhere? Is that documented as well, or was there a "camera malfunction" just prior to the attack? ...And were the cameras working when your friend pushed the guy down the stairs, or was there an "accidental erasure" of the tape? Ain't it funny how well the cameras work some of the time, and how they fail at the most inopportune times? OOPS!
Even if the attack was completely unprovoked and your friend was entirely innocent of any wrongdoing prior to the point where he pushed the inmate down the stairs, there are lawful and effective ways of dealing with such behavior on the part of a prisoner, and incidentally didn't your mother ever teach you that two wrongs don't make a right?
Oh yeah, John, you're a real prince. Really, guy?
Think about this for a second: One person has had her clothing forcibly removed, and another has been pushed down a flight of stairs while his hands and feet were shackled. Which is worse?
You are a personal witness to the perpetrator of a criminal act of violence against another human being, bragging about his crime, no less, and you don't have a problem with it, but you're all worked up over some woman being stripped by men and women who didn't say "please"? How d'you sleep at night, ya hypocrite?
I guess it's a good thing for Hope Steffey that she's an attractive blonde, that she wasn't a convicted felon, and that none of the deputies in question happened to be a personal friend of yours, or you'd be in the blogosphere arguing that you didn't have a problem with it. You'd swallow every lie the Sheriff's Dept handed out, just like you swallowed your friend's cock-n-bull story about how that inmate deserved what he got, and when the media repeated the lie, rather than investigate the story, you'd take the story as confirmation that your friend and his fellow deputies were telling the truth.
Look, John, I'm not saying I don't appreciate your advocacy for Hope, but I am saying that if you don't put as much effort into advocating for justice in the case of the inmate that your friend pushed down the stairs, then you are not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Your conscience may be weak and gullible enough to swallow the B.S. you're spouting to excuse your friend's crime, but I am not. You have personal knowledge of a crime far worse than that committed against Hope Steffey, and not only have you done nothing to seek justice, you have actually argued to excuse the injustice. Your friend belongs behind bars, not guarding them.
...And your reason for doing nothing is...?
--- Gos
Sad to say, lawsuits will not stop this kind of police abuse. When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to throw of the ties that bind them......
You will see in the coming civil war, police being mowed down and slaughtered as oppressors. The thought of going thru that police station with body armor and a few 12 gauge street sweepers automatically jumps in my mind when I see this kind of thing.
If they are going to abuse and terrorize the citizens, they need to disarm us first.
I am not advocating armed rebellion; however, I was born free a citizen of this great republic and I will die as such. America is the only country on earth people try to sneak into. It is a resilient nation. The cause and source of every human and civil rights advance in the world. I feel it will correct this evil in due time.
God help the innocent to perceiver.
Gos, You are right about not taking someones word for what happened. That shouldn't happen. For all we know the inmate might have had a reason. But then, it shouldn't be enough for him to have not followed the laws either.
Why am I not fighting this story as hard as Steffey's? Well this one is a 20+ year old tale, that had taken place who knows how long before that....IF it had really taken place at all.
You have to allow for even a lie. Plus the fact I have no idea where this was supposed to have taken place, or when.
The sad truth is that without the video, Steffey's case wouldn't have rated a second look, everyone would be siding with the cops.
Even with the video, they keep repeating the same mantra over & over that she was physically & verbally abusive, and out of control.....and it seems people actually believe it if its repeated enough times.
And I have stated that if any of these cops had been friends that there is no way I would sit on this, but you keep posting crap to the contrary, so I am just guessing that theres going to be no reasonable way to resolve this with you.
Anyway Happy Easter---
[...] you read the comments here, there has been a lot of coverup by the police department. They claim the usual, “The camera [...]
[...] women who does not resist at can be taken to jail, then pinned down in a cell, video taped, and completely stripped by multiple female and male officers with no consequences. I know someone who had a similar thing happen with a “forced blood draw” after a [...]
QUOTE "Whether or not the videotape was presented to the state grand jury will probably never be known, since the deliberations of grand juries are held in secret."
Well I can't say what was shown, but I do know some of what they didn't show.
They didn't show them all the court transcripts, because theres a page missing, right in the middle of the arresting officers testimony. (Page 133)
They didn't show the the 911 call.
They never gave them the call Steffey made to her husband.
They never showed the nurse interview with Steffey.
All these pieces of evidence are KEY pieces in this case.
I fail to understand HOW they can claim to have investigated this case WITHOUT these.
Thank you - you said that brilliantly. I just keep thinking - this could happen to me or my sister - (or my mom, though this was a petite blonde thing so it would unlikely be her) I mean really, how many people does it take to remove a 120 pound woman's clothing (and never mind that the woman is handcuffed and just been the victim of an assault). Shame on so many people. This is a HUGE injustice!
livinthedunes when I posted this I still hadn't gotten all the evidence I had asked for under Ohio's Sunshine Laws. And as a matter of fact I STILL haven't gotten all the stuff I have asked for.
As far as I'm concerned their refusal to release some evidence, and drag their feet on the rest is just another piece of evidence that they are criminals. Trying to cover up the evidence of their criminal actions.
If you go almost to the end of this post you'll see I did get a piece of evidence that shows that the sheriff LIED about the cops ever giving Steffey a chance to remove her own cloths. (Of course this was evident from the strip video, but now theres proof positive.)
Also at the end of the strip video, when you hear the cops laughing, I also have the video of the hall outside Steffey's cell.....where you can see them CONTINUE to laugh....its all up on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgmyQvB3XSQ
This case continues to get worse & worse.....
Links to Steffey Torture
Even blurred out you can still see the cop putting a submission hold on Steffey. Even ultimate fighters give up quickly when they are pinned in a submission hold, but then his opponent lets him go, unlike the cops that have Hope Steffey.
Yeah a guy twice Steffey's size can't JUST restrain her, he has his arm jammed up under her arm, while she's in cuffs torturing her into submission.
Even after they remove the cuffs, the guy TWICE her size has her arm twisted up behind her. Not satisfied with JUST restraining her, he tortures her into submission.
EIGHT people there and they still resort to this BS! I just have to wonder where their SWAT team is!??!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/SteffeyTortured.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/SteffeyTortured2.jpg
Another woman that was there when Hope Steffey was assaulted, I wonder how she sleeps at night??
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/SteffeyAssaliant.jpg
UPDATE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgmyQvB3XSQ
Ok heres a video you won't see on the news.
Heres the cops taking Steffey to the cell to strip her naked. This shows what was going on outside in the hallway.
The quality of the video is pretty bad. It will seem to 'skip' frames for quite a while in some places, but then take a bunch in a row at other times. Why it does this, I don't know.
All the cameras at the sheriff's dept seem to be in bad shape and "malfunction" right at critical moments.
I had to cut this video in half, it was 20 minutes long, from the time they took her in to the time they left the hall in front of her cell. So I cut off the front of it when they took her in.
Heres a link to the whole thing that should be good for a while:
http://rapidshare.com/files/232400098/Production_Done.wmv
WHY does it take 20 minutes outside the hall to show a "suicide prevention" that only took 4 min?
The building camera, seems to skip a lot of frames, so you'd think it would be a shorter video.
But as you can see after they have closed up the cell after assaulting her, they all stand around and have a good laugh, so this will add some more time to the video.
As you can see from the video the big dufass in the white shirt, he stays at the door to the cell looking in all the time Steffey was being assaulted, and then he stays back around her cell afterwards, looking in....GEE, I wonder WHY?
Then afterwards he's joined by another officer who didn't get a chance to help strip Steffey and he starts walking down to have a look too.
WHY DON'T THEY JUST SELL TICKETS?!?!?!?
BUT THEN the camera seems to malfunction, and the next thing you see is a empty hall.
WOW, .....MORE "missing" video from Stark County Sheriff's Dept.
I have worked in suicide prevention units. You know what it takes to get a person appear suicidal? Just say she mentioned hurting them self. I have seen nurses do this to 80 year old geriatrics for merely being uncooperative. Just push on to the civil lawsuit, and focus on the actual fact gathering involving any actionable justification for self harm. I am sure that when it gets picked at, it will fall apart.
In short, she was probably being a loud pain in the ass, and the cops did that to shut her up. Yeah, I have seen it done more than once.
MEN CAN BE PRESENT IN A STRIP SEARCH IF THE INMATE REFUSES TO COMPLY WITH FEMALES ORDERS TO COMPLY WITH STRIP SEARCH. THIS IS BECAUSE BACK UP OR EXTRA OFFICERS ARE NEEDED IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THE TASK SAFELY WITHOUT CAUSING INJURY TO OFFICERS.
Who knows what this woman did before this video starts. If she was completely innocent through that portion of the video how come that has not come out yet? She could have been fighting with officers up until that point and in that case the officers are 100% justifiable.
I routinely go to correctional law updates and have had this info verified. No one should be making judgement off a one sided report.
QUOTE "Not the Judge said
Who knows what this woman did before this video starts."
I do, and so can you....its all on YouTube.
I'm not making any judgment on a one sided report, I have been looking into this case for over a year!
In that year I have had the Stark County cops withhold information, laugh when I asked for information, and out right LIE to me. I have also left my name & number MANY times, with assurances of a return call.
The state has been more helpful, as has Butch Hunyadi at the Bureau of Adult Detention.
I have also talked to Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero, Stark County Family Court Administrator Richard DeHeer, Special Prosecutions Ohio Attorney General, Paul Scarsella the Section Chief & Bridget Carty, the Ohio Press Secretary Jim Gravelle, the Correctional Healthcare Group CEO Jonathon Stump, the local FBI agent, and Stark County Jail Director of Human Resources Vivianne Whalen.
Heres the first in a series of videos, just look at all the posted videos....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEhyDgQojKs
This series will also show the cops excuses for the lies they are.
I am also still trying to get more info, but even the States Atty's Office is having trouble getting it from the BCI.
Yeah, these people have nothing to hide.... :(
Apparently the video wasn't seen by the grand jury because the sheriff said the hand held camera was broken.
Now the video has been accepted by Federal Court will Grand Jury reopen case and check theInvestigators report which apparently was also not truthfully reported as she categorically said there was no Body or Cavity search but the rendered photographs in 'Expose them all. Hope Steffey Case' shows the truth