Deputy’s Conviction for Falsifying Document in Prisoner’s Death Affirmed

by David Reutter

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction Jay Smith, a former deputy with the Lucas County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) in Ohio, for falsifying a document,. The falsification involved omitting events that resulted in the death of prisoner Carlton Benton.

Doctors with St. Vincent’s Hospital discharged Benton on May 30, 2004, and released him in the custody of five LCSO deputies, one being Schmeltz. A thirty-minute struggle to extricate Benton from the web of handcuffs, medical equipment, and leg irons binding him to his hospital bed ended when a third deputy maced Benton. Once Benton was subdued, he was placed in a wheelchair and transported to jail in a van.

Once at the jail, Sgt. John Gray and other deputies met the van and escorted Benton into the booking area. Benton, now out of the wheelchair and on foot, had his hands cuffed –chain and leg irons restricting his gait to a shuffle of “short, unbalanced steps.” While awaiting a determination of where to take Benton, Schmeltz shoved him in the direction of the elevator. Unable to break his fall because of the restraints, Benton hit his head on the wall and fell to the floor. The incident was caught on a video camera.

Benton was taken by Schmeltz and five other deputies to the jail’s medical unit. He was placed face down on a bed and resisted attempts to remove his restraints. Sgt. Gray subdued Benton with a “carotid artery restraint hold,” or a “sleeper hold,” that rendered Benton unconscious. As he lay motionless, the deputies removed the restraints and left the cell. Later that day, a nurse discovered during her rounds that Benton was unconscious. He never regained consciousness and died two days later.

Following the incident, Schmeltz prepared two “Corrections Officer Reports.” Neither of these reports, dated May 30 and June 1, 2004, included an account of Schmeltz’s shoving of Benton or Gray’s rendering Benton unconscious with a sleeper hold.

A grand jury indicted Schmeltz and three other deputies with various crimes in connection with their use of force on Benton and their alleged attempts to conceal their actions during the investigation. Schmeltz was charged with two counts of falsifying an official report in violation of 18 U.S.C. §1519, one for each of his reports. A jury found him guilty of only falsifying the May 30^th report. The district court sentenced him to twelve months and one day in prison.

On appeal, Schmeltz argued the charge “set forth separate and distinct crimes in one count” by basing the charge on three separate omissions. The Sixth Circuit rejected that argument, holding the “falsifies” clause of § 1519 was intended to punish the falsification of a document, rather than specific statements or omissions within the document. Thus, only one offense was charged and the conviction was affirmed. See: United States v. Schmeltz, 667 F.3d 685 (6^th Cir., 2011).

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