Ohio Pays $725,000 to Survivors of Two Prisoners Beaten to Death by Lying Guards
On July 17, 2024, the Ohio Court of Claims approved a settlement between the state Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (DRC) and the Estate of mentally ill prisoner Dewey C. McVay, Jr., who died after taking a beating from guards who then lied about what happened at the Correctional Reception Center (CRC) outside Columbus.
After McVay was convicted of rape, he arrived at CRC on December 2, 2019, and guards attempting to move him initiated a violent “cell extraction.” The 55-year-old was slammed into a wall, punched and hit with a pepper spray cannister. He was found unresponsive on the floor of his cell 13 days later. After transport to a hospital, he died on December 20, 2019, of blunt force injuries to his head, an autopsy determined.
It took an investigation by the Columbus Dispatch to uncover DRC records of discipline meted out to two guards involved in the assault after it was determined that their version of events—that McVay injured himself banging his head against the wall—was unlikely, given the extent of his injuries. DRC ultimately issued “last chance” pre-employment termination warnings to guard Clinton Woodard-Hinton and Activity Therapy Supervisor Tory Miller. Ohio Highway Patrol investigators also referred their findings to Pickaway County Prosecutor Judy Wolford, but she declined to file charges, using the same excuse the guards tried—that McVay had a history of banging his head on the wall, so it would be impossible for her to prove his injuries were caused by the guards.
After that, with the aid of attorneys Jacqueline Greene, Alphonse A. Gerhardstein and Sara Gelsomino of Friedman Gilbert + Gerhardstein in Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ronald B. Noga, as Special Administrator of McVay’s Estate, filed suit accusing DRC and its employees of negligence and wrongful death. The parties then proceeded to reach their settlement agreement, paying the Estate $225,000, which included fees and costs for its attorneys. See: Est. of McVay v. Ohio Dep’t of Rehab. & Corr., Ohio Ct. of Claims, Case No. 2021-00688.
$500,000 Settlement for Another Prisoner’s Fatal Beating
Earlier, on October 2, 2023, the Court approved another settlement between DRC and the Estate of prisoner Michael A. McDaniel, who was also beaten to death by CRC guards. McDaniel, 55, was just six months shy of release from the sentence he was serving for drug-related charges, when he was repeatedly beaten and thrown into a snowbank by guards—despite being handcuffed and compliant—on a cold day in February 2021. Following a medical exam at the prison infirmary that lasted just over a minute, he died of stress-induced sudden cardiac arrest.
An autopsy revealed that he had suffered “blunt force injuries to his head, face, shoulders, wrists, hands, knees, feet, toes and abdomen,” and the Franklin County Coroner ruled his death a homicide. Though DRC subsequently fired seven staffers who lied about their involvement in the incident—Lt. Bruce Brown and subordinate guards Heath Causey, Jerry Perkins, Joey Lemaster, Kristy Judd and Sarah Cline, plus nurse Jamie Dukes—Wolford again declined to file any criminal charges, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Dec. 2021, pg.59.]
With the aid of Columbus attorney John W. Waddy, Jr., McDaniel’s sister, Jada McDaniel Smith, filed suit on behalf of his Estate in 2022 in state Court of Claims, accusing DRC and its employees of failing to de-escalate the situation, using excessive force on the prisoner and then failing to provide him adequate medical care. DRC ultimately settled the case with an agreement to pay the Estate and its attorneys $500,000, plus court costs. See: Est. of McDaniel v. Ohio Dep’t of Rehab. and Corr., Ohio Ct. of Claims, Case No. 2022-00073JD.
As often happens in such cases, the state responded to PLN’s request for case documents many months after it was made. Meanwhile, Wolford has decided to ask Pickaway County voters to make her judge on the county Court of Common Pleas in the November 2024 election.
Additional source: Columbus Dispatch
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