Franklin County Sheriff Faces Civil Case for Taser Brutality
The Department of Justice has joined a class action civil suit against the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department that alleges deputies have used stun guns in an “excessive, cruel, and inhumane” manner, depriving inmates and detainees of their rights. While it isn’t the same as filing criminal brutality charges against the department and deputies involved, it could serve to usher some major change in the way the department uses their taser weapons.
According to this report from the Columbus Dispatch, the lawsuit was filed by the Ohio Legal Rights Service on behalf of many prisoners having been held in the local jail and having been victims of stun gun use. The suit outlines several instances where prisoners were tased unnecessarily and not according to protocol.
According to the suit, the department used Tasers 180 times between January 2008 and May 2010. While nearly all of these instances were said to have been appropriate by the Sheriff’s Department itself, the suit states that many times they were used when there was “no threat of violence or harm”.
Among the examples given were of a pregnant female prisoner being tased after failing to remove a toe ring when her hands were slippery. Also, a twenty four year old woman was tased after refusing to be forcibly strip searched when male deputies were present. Her offense? Driving without a license.
While procedures and policies vary slightly from department to department, controversy surrounding the use of stun guns by law enforcement is nothing new. Just this week in California, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled excessive force was used on a man stopped for a seatbelt violation.
While it’s understandable that police and jail officials have these weapons, they should only be deployed in extreme cases. Often times, we find, when there is clear evidence of excessive force, criminal charges against a defendant will be dropped.
Charges like resisting arrest and disorderly conduct often accompany use of force actions by police. These sorts of crimes are very broad in definition, meaning they can be applied to many situations—all far different from one another.
If you’re facing criminal charges and believe the police acted with unnecessary force, or if you are facing charges and you aren’t sure how to handle them, we can help. Contact our offices today for a consultation on your case.
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FRANKLIN COUNTY AND SHERIFF BEING SUED FOR BRUTAL ABUSE OF INMATE…..
This is an amazing story that sounds like its straight from a novel or movie. But for Robert Krutko of Hilliard, Ohio, it?s not a dream it is the nightmare he has lived through for several years. As an Ohio resident and successful business owner of several enterprises, Krutko decided to open a business in Key West, Forida. What he did not know at the time was the corruption that plagued this small city and would eventually cost him his business investment.
Krutko, who refused to submit after being victimized, was refused help by local, state, and federal enforcement agencies in Florida, decided to expose those who victimized him on the internet. After exposing and blowing the whistle on several of them for illegal business activities, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. investigated the claims and found them not only to be true but fined their businesses and even stopped one of them from illegally operating in a protected marine sanctuary.
What krutko did not realize was one of the businesses was owned by a local attorney in Key West with close connections to the local court system.
Krutko revealed that several individuals in Key West, who did not appreciate his competition in the local tour boat business, decided to steal and later destroy his boat while enforcement officers sat watching only 30 feet away. It happened that a local U.S. Navy civilian employee was home while this was happening and filmed the theft in progress and documented the police watching.
Several months later after exposing the lawbreakers in south Florida the owner of one of the businesses the attorney decided to file a civil suit to silence Krutko. After receiving death threats by mail as well as a death threat tied a brick thrown through his home in Columbus, Krutko was not about to give up on seeking justice.
In early November 2009, Krutko?s home was surrounded by undercover local FBI agents and he was arrested on a civil warrant out on a civil case as a ?fugitive from justice?- and fleeing Florida?s jurisdiction. ?I was in shock?? said krutko, ?here I am the victim and I begged the FBI for their help in a grand theft case involving my Coast Guard-inspected tour boat and destruction of my property. Not only did I not receive any help, but the FBI arrested me on a bogus civil warrant.? The nightmare was just beginning.
The Franklin County Jail
Krutko was taken to the Franklin County Corrections Center on Jackson Pike where he was held without bond for 100 days. He was jailed with murderers, rapists, and child molesters and here they were getting bonds while i was refused said Krutko. Krutko stated that he never was a problem for anyone at the jail and never got in trouble. He treated all law enforcement personnel with respect as part of his upbringing and noted that members of his family serves on the local police force.
?It was during this time in the Franklin County jail?, said Krutko ?where another chapter of his nightmare began. ?I was thrown in ?the hole? several times, once because fellow inmates pounded on the door for me because I had trouble breathing and was losing color. The nurse quickly arrived with several medical personnel and asked the deputies to take him downstairs and put him in isolation for a while because they did not want to deal with these trashy inmates tonight.”
It was during one of these times in the hole that Krutko was in the cell with two other inmates when he was awoken to a loud rumble and inmates yelling for help. He found himself soaked from head to toe with raw sewage. From a toilet overflowing so bad that it was above the rim of the seat by one to two feet.. After yelling with the other inmates for help, deputies came by the door telling us to deal with the problem because ??we were just pieces of shit. ?
After being removed to another cell (in the hole), Krutko said there was raw sewage there as well as the result of an overflow. We were given clean prison smocks, but I was refused a shower many times. Krutko later was taken across the way to the medical building where he was put into a cell by himself with only a sink and a toilet. The sink in this cell did not work and still the staff of deputies and the medical staff refused to allow him to shower. By this time, Krutko reported that the burning from dried urine and fecal matter all over his body was hard to endure and the smell was so bad it made his gag reflexes kick in.
A number of days later Krutko was returned to the general population where there was at least was a shower in the dorm that he was allowed to use.
?A number of things should really upset the public and people reading this?, said Krutko. ?If you call any attorney or any judge and tell them a person had a civil case filed against him in another jurisdiction and a warrant issued for fugitive from justice fleeing that jurisdiction they will be shocked that the FBI would pick him up on this civil warrant and would not believe the story.? Krutko and others spoke with many attorneys and several judges and everyone who heard the story was shocked. The shock is that the FBI?s work load is so backed up that they just do not have the time to even chase down major felons let alone a civil case warrant. Within a week of leaving the Franklin County Corrections center Krutko collapsed, had lost over 100 pounds, and it was confirmed by Hospital Doctors Krutko had a mass on his lung and liver.
Kruto said the suit is not just about the money. More important, he wants to see the severe abuse by deputies and Medical Staff against inmates in the Franklin County jail stopped. He stated: ?When you get booked into the jail you are supposed to be given a tooth brush, soap and general hygiene products ? and this just did not and currently does not occur. The Franklin County Correctional Center also has a major problem with wastewater and raw sewage backups because in the Jackson Pike facility our public information request several weeks ago showed maintenance records of more than 6,400 backups in just a 5 year period. This includes jail cell and kitchen backups.
Maxwell Kinman Attorney will represent Robert Krutko in a Federal lawsuit. ?The abuse by deputies and medical staff is astonishing?, said Krutko. ? It is something that needs to be changed immediately. . The Sheriffs department recently settled several suits by the Ohio Legal Rights services and the Department of Justice for excessive stun gun use including use on pregnant women. Another recent suit settlement involved deputies who had an inmate helping pass out food trays put his penis on another inmates sandwich before the inmate ate the sandwich.
Krutko is being treated for a post traumatic stress disorder, severe stress, including flashbacks, says ?I cannot believe this is happening in America” His major goal is to see repairs and procedures for sanitary raw sewage cleanups in the jail. At present, there are no written cleanup procedures; Deputies use inmates working that day give them rubber gloves and mop up the mess. They do they same thing after bodily fluids and blood are exposed after an inmates fight. The inmates are not trained in this type cleanup and its very dangerous because after mopping up raw sewage, blood etc , they take the same mop buckets around the jail to cleanup other spills of food-coffee etc. that has the potential to spread diseases that can be fatal to someone with an impaired immune system. These are dangerous and unsanitary practices.
Krutko pointed out when he watched a news story where a person with a excessive number of pets is found fill of urine and feces, the health authorities on the scene along with cleanup crews are protected by personal protective gear from head to toe. After cleaning, the house is often condemned. At Jackson Pike corrections facility, lack of basic sanitation is an everyday problem that apparently is taken almost as a joke.
When opined on the past Sheriff Jim Karnes and the newly appointed Sheriff Zach Scott, Krutko said, ?I went to school with Karnes? daughters and with my wife. I have been to his house on several occasions when I would fish just down the street years ago. I always had the utmost respect for Karnes until i went into a hell hole and was abused along with a number of other inmates. Jim Karnes was responsible for this hell hole. Obviously he turned his back while this went on. When he settled his stun gun case he immediately went on the news to say ” they did nothing wrong.” I see as evil. Instead of probing the problem and fixing it, he was quick to say we did nothing wrong when even the feds confirmed they did.
If Zach Scott is really different from Jim Karnes and cares about abuse going on in his jail, I urge him to call Maxwell Kinman attorney directly and would love to have a 3 way phone conversation with him to discuss the dangerous conditions in his jail. If he doesn?t care, the elections are next year it will be time to bring in an outside candidate who has not worked for the Sheriffs department to come in and clean it up. ?
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Below is a list of individuals have taken a great interest in the story after hearing it. They have investigated it and would gladly speak to any media and let them know what they have discovered.
Robert Krutko urges the media to call these folks because this is a story that ,when you first hear it ,you won?t believe until you dig deeper and see that everything truly happened and is still happening.
— Brett Sagenkahn. Retired South Florida PoliceSergeant and Private Investigator- 954-205-2417
— Capt. Richard Block- 985-851-2134- Secretary, National Mariners Association
— Maxwell Kinman, Esq. Attorney- 513-693-0155
— Mike Brownlee, Esq. Attorney (Florida)- 407-843-2111
— William Roe-954-695-5803- Attorney