Calling it “one of the most blatant and outrageous uses of excessive force” he’s ever seen, Cleveland attorney Nick DeCello of Spangenberg Shibley & Liber LLP filed suit in federal court for the Northern District of Ohio on January 25, 2024, accusing a Lorain County Jail (LCJ) guard of assaulting a handcuffed detainee eight months earlier and breaking his neck. Another guard at the lockup has been fired and accused of a separate assault, even though an earlier lawsuit settlement cast suspicion that he was involved in yet another attack on a detainee.

Plaintiff Jeffrey Fry, 58, was arrested by Elyria police on May 12, 2023, on a bench warrant for failure to appear on a misdemeanor charge. “I didn’t pay my fine,” Fry admitted. “I was homeless. I had no money.” He was also suspected of being drunk. Handcuffed and taken to the jail, surveillance video captured what happened next. Guard Brian Tellier removed Fry’s shoes and led him barefoot toward a body scanner when he “suddenly, aggressively, and violently” took Fry, who was handcuffed behind his back, and “slammed him head-first into a glass wall and onto the ground,” the complaint recalled.

Fry hit the wall and went limp. Tellier yanked him up, attempting to force his unconscious body into a sitting position. Other guards arrived, along with jail medical staff, and they stood awhile with Tellier, contemplating the situation. But no one intervened to help Fry, despite his obvious physical distress—he was bleeding and unable to stand when revived.

“They started talking and asked me how I was doing,” Fry recalled after coming to, “and I said I don’t know, you just broke my neck.”

When emergency responders arrived 17 minutes later from Lifecare Ambulance, Inc., Fry was yanked face-down onto a gurney and transported to a hospital. There, imaging studies revealed a traumatic spinal injury, which required surgery. Meanwhile one of those who allegedly failed to intervene for him at the jail, Licensed Practical Nurse Lauren Arbogast, filed a report that claimed Fry got into a drunken brawl with Tellier and other guards. A similar story was spun by jail Administrator James Gordon—who is also Tellier’s father-in-law.

Only the report of one jailer, Sgt. David Kish, noted what the video showed: That Fry “was forcefully placed onto the gurney and forcefully flipped onto his back,” something that “should not have occurred if there was a suspected head or neck injury.”

Fry still suffers from partial paralysis—“probably 80% in my arms,” he said, adding that “I can’t dress myself.” For that his suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from the county, Elyria and Lifecare Ambulance. PLN will update developments in the case as they are available. See: Fry v. Lorain Cty., USDC (N.D. Ohio), Case No. 1:24-cv-00126.

Guard Ruben Ortiz Charged in Second Detainee Assault

Tellier was later given a reprimand, but he remains employed at the jail. Unsurprisingly, the failure to mete out more serious discipline also meant a failure to deter fellow jailer Ruben Ortiz, 53, from giving a beat-down to a mentally ill detainee a few months later.

Charles Koch, Jr., 34, had previously been found not guilty of a 2021 assault by reason of insanity when his forensic monitor reported in August 2023 that Koch had gone off his medications. A judge ordered him sent to a state psychiatric hospital, and on August 25, 2023, while Koch awaited transfer from LCJ, surveillance video recorded an assault by Ortiz, who threw the detainee head-first into a brick wall, punching him in the face repeatedly before he rammed a bench with Koch’s head and took him down to the ground. Rather than intervene to help him, a trio of “John Doe” guards piled on top of Koch, according to a complaint filed on his behalf by Elyria attorney Steve Albenze on January 5, 2024. That case also remains pending, and PLN will update developments as they are available. See: Koch v. Lorain Cty., USDC (N.D. Ohio), Case No. 1:24-cv-00031.

Ortiz was charged with misdemeanor assault and falsification of his report on October 9, 2023. On November 27, 2023, the office of county Sheriff Phil Stammitti fired him. But over a 22-year career, Ortiz had been accused in detainee assaults before—including one incident that cost the county a $30,000 settlement payout.

Like Koch, Steven Conley suffered from mental health problems and was taking psychotropic medication when a court ordered him detained for psychiatric evaluation and he had the misfortune of landing at LCJ on January 2, 2018. Three weeks later, according to the complaint later filed on his behalf, Conley experienced a mental health crisis and “extremely bizarre behavior,” which he attributed to “exercising demons.” A doctor restricted him to his cell. For unknown reasons, however, jail staff decided to move him. Although Conley was calm, compliant and in restraints, two guards—believed to be Ortiz and James Stanley—swept his legs from under him, kicking and punching him after he fell to the ground. Conley was then put in a restraint chair for several hours; the incident was recorded on security video, too.

Ortiz and Stanley, plus fellow guards Jason Brunner and Eric Hollis, filed allegedly false incident reports “completely contradictory” to the video, which got sign-offs from Cpl. James Martin. As a result of the unprovoked attack, Conley suffered black eyes, bruises, “severe damage to his left ear drum” and emotional trauma from the two guards’ “excessive, gratuitous and unreasonable force.”

In addition to the guards, Conley’s lawsuit accused Lorain County, its Board of Commissioners, Sheriff Stammitti and Lt. James Gordon of failing to ensure guards were “accountable or disciplined for their misconduct.” Other staffers were also provided inadequate training, the suit continued, so the investigation into the Conley’s allegations “was so incomplete and inadequate as to constitute a ratification” of the guards’ actions. Shockingly, the suit described another four incidents in which Ortiz was accused of assaulting detainees, including one who was handcuffed at the time, yet the guard continued on the job another four years.

The suit also raised a spoliation of evidence claim after LCJ provided only part of the surveillance video, and then only in response to a public records request. The $30,000 settlement reached on November 27, 2019, included costs and fees for Conley’s attorneys, David B. Malik and Sara Gedeon of Malik Law in Chesterfield. See: Conley v. Lorain Cty., U.S.D.C. (N.D. Ohio), Case no. 1: l 9-cv-00193-CAB.

 

Additional sources: Cleveland Plain Dealer, Mansfield Morning Journal, WEWS, WOIO

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