Stark County OH Sheriffs office
phone: (330)430-3800
e-mail: strkshrf@raex.com
http://www.sheriff.co.stark.oh.us/
Source & video Link of Hope Steffie being assaulted by Ohio Sheriffs
Stark County OH Sheriffs office
phone: (330)430-3800
e-mail: strkshrf@raex.com
http://www.sheriff.co.stark.oh.us/
Stark County OH Sheriffs office
phone: (330)430-3800
e-mail: strkshrf@raex.com
http://www.sheriff.co.stark.oh.us/
CANTON -- Hope Steffey's night began with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, completely naked and sobbing on a jail cell floor.
Steffey says Stark County sheriff's deputies used excessive force and assaulted her during a strip search 15 months ago, according to a federal lawsuit. Stark County Sheriff Timothy Swanson denies the allegation.
Steffey's attorney says her clothes, including her underwear and bra, were stripped from her body by at least seven male and female sheriff's deputies and jail workers. She lay face down in handcuffs at the time.
"Hope begged and pleaded with her ... assailants to stop," the lawsuit says. "There was no forcible penetration but Hope felt as if she was being raped."
The sheriff denies this was a strip search. The sheriff's policy requires officers conducting any strip search to be of the same sex. Her attorney, David Malik, said Steffey, 41, was never asked to voluntarily remove her clothes. In an e-mail, Swanson said Steffey was asked to remove her clothes but refused. He said deputies took them off for her own safety. Swanson declined to comment further, saying the details would come out in court. Channel 3 News obtained exclusive video of Steffey's night in the Stark County jail cell. You can click the link at the bottom of the page to view it. A warning: it is difficult to watch. Steffey declined to be interviewed for this story. But her husband, a high school educator, talked to Channel 3's Tom Meyer.Greg Steffey said his wife is still traumatized. But the couple wants the story told to prevent it from happening to someone else.
"This could be your wife or anyone's wife," Greg Steffey said.
He said he still can't believe this happened to Hope, a 125-pound woman who, earlier that night, turned to police for help.
"You don't treat people like this," Greg Steffey said. "I don't think murderers are treated like this much less people charged with disorderly conduct."
Steffey's ordeal with the Stark County Sheriff's deputies began after her cousin called police for help.In a 9-1-1 call, her cousin said Steffey had been assaulted by another cousin. When a Stark County deputy arrived, he asked for Steffey's driver's license. She accidentally turned over her dead sister's license, which she said she keeps in her wallet as a memento, the lawsuit says. The deputy refused to give the license back and told Steffey to "shut up about your dead sister," according to her attorney.
The sheriff denied that in a written response to the lawsuit.
Eventually, Steffey was arrested and taken to the Stark County Jail. She was later charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
After her clothes were removed, she was locked in a cell. To stay warm, she wrapped herself in toilet paper. She remained in the cell for six hours.
During that time, she was not allowed to use a phone or seek medical attention for injuries she suffered that night, including a cracked tooth, bulging disc and bruises, the lawsuit says.
The sheriff denies that.
Stark County OH Sheriffs office
phone: (330)430-3800
e-mail: strkshrf@raex.com
http://www.sheriff.co.stark.oh.us/
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4 comments:
they are no more than rapest they took her cloths off with out her permishen thats caled rape isent it.
Here’s a quick Cut & Past of a post I have been putting up. It also may shed some light on what was REALLY going on:
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
This is part of page 3
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/?action=view¤t=BCI-Report.jpg
Sheriff Swanson has ALWAYS maintained that Steffey was ASKED & REFUSED to remove her cloths.
But here’s the BCI’s OWN REPORT that PROVES this is a LIE!
And then they try to explain away their first lie with another lie, about why it was done this way without asking Steffey to do it voluntarily.
They are trying to say that Steffey was resisting enough that EIGHT people (5 women, 3 men) couldn’t take the chance of ASKING her to remove her cloths, or EVEN TELL HER WHAT WAS GOING ON!!!
What a crock!!
I did NOT see any resisting in the video, I saw eight cops parading her to the cell, with her in cuffs.
In fact EVERY video I have seen she is in cuffs!
And the ONLY times I have seen her react to the cops is after they have assaulted her or in the process of stripping her naked.
But apparently catching the sheriff’s dept in a lie isn’t a big deal to our “independent” BCI investigator, Christy Palmer, who seems ready to accept ANY excuse the sheriff’s dept wants to use.
The report also goes on to say that they lowered Steffey in a slow controlled manner to the floor. Except that Steffey says she was thrown to the floor.
She also told her husband in a phone call that she thought the cops had broken her nose.
And she was treated by the nurse for the injury.
And in page 4 of this report Christy Palmer even states that Steffey reported that her nose was making “crunching noises”.
So I guess this is proof of a second LIE! (Or third)
And still Christy Palmer, the “independent investigator” doesn’t think twice about accepting the word of the cops over the VICTIMS in spite of proof.
BTW, Christy also references a video that she says “proves that she was lowered in a slow controlled manner to the floor”. As far as I know, THIS would have to be on the ‘non-existent’ beginning of the strip video.
On May 5th when I asked about the “missing” video, I was told it would soon be released.
Now here again it looks as though it’s referenced…even though they NOW claim it does not exist.
Interesting. (I have filed a request for this video.)
Its no wonder the grand jury found that the cop’s actions didn’t rise to the level of “criminal culpability”. How could they with the BCI investigator spellchecking the sheriff’s own reports and passing them on as FACT.
This isn’t so much an investigation report as it is a smear campaign against Hope Steffey.
The cops can polish this turd as much as want, this STILL STINKS!
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?
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 was always puzzled by the news saying that there was "confusion" when the cops arrived.
I'm thinking what "confusion"?? They have everyone there saying that Steffey was the victim, even the female cousin is saying it on video.
Heck even the cop testifies that he went to his car to document Steffey's injuries...and the cops are on tape talking about Steffey's cousin getting arrested the month before for another domestic battery charge, and even her brother mentions her other assault charge when he calls 911 & the cops on his OWN SISTER!
Plus Gurlea has everyone looking for Steffey’s missing hair, and Gurlea is on tape talking to Steffey as if he knows she is the victim, telling her that he will still investigate her assault even though he is arresting her. Plus he also names her as the victim in his radio traffic!
So WHY are the papers saying there was "confusion", there is none in the evidence!?!?
It didn’t make any sense.
Then Richard T. Gurlea Jr testified under oath that the investigation was never finished, because Steffey was ‘unable to contribute to the investigation’.
HUH?? You mean ANY victim that is knocked unconscious or killed will never have their case solved!?!?!
Because Steffey had gone back to the sheriff’s dept 4 days later to file abuse complaints & the assault. So are they trying to say she was STILL unable to “contribute to the investigation’”??
This makes no sense at all!
Then the cops got only TWO written witness statements, despite the fact that there were several people there.
Again it doesn’t make any sense.
Then I found the last piece of the puzzle that would make sense of all this...the cops tried to FRAME Steffey for the assault that she had reported!!
Here’s PROOF the cops were actually trying to charge the VICTIM for the crime she was reporting!!
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/Incident-Report-Assault.jpg
NONE of the papers have EVER reported that Steffey was actually arrested for assault too. But this incident report clearly shows the cops were trying their best to get her charged with the assault too.
It’s all an attempt to cover the cop’s abuse of Steffey, when witnesses said he exploded in a rage at her.
They even went so far as to take ONLY TWO written witness statements, and they were from Steffey's attacker & her brother...(who she no doubt threatened into it, since she didn't know at that time he was the one to call the cops)...and she DID threaten the aunt that she thought had called them.
The arresting cop, Richard T. Gurlea Jr., testified at Steffey's trial that the 'investigation' into the assault was never finished.
REALLY?!!? Then how do you explain the assault charges against Steffey in the incident report they filled out???
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