by matttbastard
Larry Shields of the Salem News reports that Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson has officially requested that Ohio Attorney General Mark Dan “review all the circumstances surrounding the arrest and incarceration of Hope Steffey in October of 2006,” a vicious incident labelled “way out of line” by Cuyahoga county Sheriff Gerald McFaul (h/t ThePoliticalCat).
Additionally, Muriel Kane of The Raw Story reports that video footage taken prior to the now-infamous strip search tape may exist, noting that “jailhouse surveillance cameras show a deputy with a handheld camera filming Steffey being escorted to her cell.”
Kane also suggests that dashboard video of the arrest, originally believed to be non-existent because the arresting officer claimed the camera was off, may not have been disclosed to Steffey’s lawyers.
Just remember, kids: Steffey is a convicted criminal; don’t let THE MEDIA (and ur lyin’ eyes) deceive you; that’s Sheriff Swanson’s duty.
*blinks*
Previously: Obey: The Sequel.
28 responses so far ↓
thepoliticalcat // February 8, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Thank you for linking to our humble blog at La Casa de Los Gatos! We have, as is our wont, blogrolled you immediately forthwith. We’ll be back.
JWrath // February 9, 2008 at 4:19 am
The Cleveland Sheriffs are calling this “way out of line”. Take the time to thank the Sheriff of Cuyahoga county for his comments…cops usually always take cops sides, but Gerald T. McFaul is a man of honor who agrees this was wrong…thank him if you will as I have already done. Please take the time to send appreciation to the Cuyahoga Sheriff for taking a stand on this…
shcuy@cuyahogacounty.us
Andy Real // February 9, 2008 at 8:50 am
You write: “Just remember, kids: Steffey is a convicted criminal;”
Then you kindly link to a news item that never mentions Steffey as being convicted of anything.
So what, pray tell, was Hope Steffey convicted of?
And for the rest of you who can not spot a person spreading disinformation: look for simple, declarative falsehoods.
Notice he says “the media” — well… try a Google News search for Hope Steffey — the “media” that this dude is warning you about already has already achieved almost a complete shutdown on this. There are about five Ohio sources and that is IT in the mainstream media.
Sorry bubba, you’re exposed.
matttbastard // February 9, 2008 at 9:19 am
Andy, are you for real? You have to be the dumbest motherfucker to ever hit ’submit’ at this here blog–and brother, there have been some dumb motherfuckers who’ve decided to comment here.
Newsflash: I WAS BEING SARCASTIC IN RESPONSE TO SWANSON’S CYA PRESS RELEASE. Y’know, snark? The lubricant that keeps the wheels of the blogosphere turning?
Also, according to the article I kindly linked to, Steffey was “charged and later convicted in Alliance Municipal Court of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest”. That’s not a moral judgment on the legitimacy of the conviction, which I obviously think is suspect–it’s an unfortunate fact that the Stark County Sheriff is trying to exploit as a means of discrediting Steffey.
Did you even bother to read my previous post on Hope Steffey, asshat?
joey // February 9, 2008 at 3:25 pm
i luv cops
Larry Maxwell // February 10, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Question: does anyone have info as to the details of her trial, or was it a case of pleading out to a misdemeanor? This will probably come out in the May hearing for the lawsuit. AFAIK, nobody has offered up any commentary on whatever court hearing she had. The circumstances may be interesting, as I recall a prosecuting attorney is named in the suit. I could be wrong about this.
raul duke // February 11, 2008 at 4:57 pm
i hope she sues every one of those who removed her clothing for no reason. not a strip search the sheriff says.. and i suppose hes right.. there was no intent to search, only to strip. these pieces of shit deserve a long prison sentence, even the females who were present.
In America // February 13, 2008 at 10:18 am
Read the Nuremberg trials, and the pretrial
material on tactics used by the Gestapo, then
Stasi after WWII, and so on. Some of the most
sadistic were small to medium town and
those in the German equivilent of counties.
Ed in Ohio // February 13, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I believe that the Sheriff should be FIRED because it happen on his watch and the other deputies should be sitting in jail for Rape of these women. I have emailed all the new station across this country and it got on CBS this morning. I have also asked the AJ office to give me some kind of answer on why no charges have been filed with those deputies. I think everyone the reads this needs to send a letter the AJ office just so we can get them motivated and do something. I have no dog in this fight but think what happen was wrong.
Ed
Charles in Charge // February 28, 2008 at 10:03 am
You can contact Tim Swanson, Stark County Sheriff responsible for this at:
strkshrf@raex.com
bastard.logic // March 12, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Hope Steffey Update: Unlawful strip search part of “a pattern” in Stark County
by matttbastard
WKYC reports that since the release of the now-notorious Hope Steffey ’strip search’ video, 4 more Stark County, Ohio women, including Valentina Dyshko of North Canton, have come forward alleging that they were forced to rem…
Angel // March 14, 2008 at 11:20 am
why are the videos removed from the internet? do they have a strong control over this? and even web contents?
El Jefe // March 15, 2008 at 3:04 am
The videos are still available at the WKYC web site.
http://search.wkyc.com/sp?aff=100&keywords=hope+steffey
The first is the original story, the second the follow up about possible missing video, and the third is from a month later, about other women who have complained of similar treatment in the Stark County jail.
Bob King // April 2, 2008 at 3:24 pm
In which I speculate idly about The Timster’s Turgid Trooper, their motivations and early influences.
Illustrated. :>
Disturbing Video, Police Assault Woman, Strip Searched - Page 12 // April 3, 2008 at 10:33 am
[...] Strip Searched Hope Steffey Update: State Attorney General To Investigate February 8, 2008 14 Comments by matttbastard Larry Shields of the Salem News reports that Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson has [...]
On Acceptable and Unacceptable Victims | Comments from Left Field // April 10, 2008 at 12:17 am
[...] more on the Hope Steffy incident here, here and here. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share [...]
john454 // April 30, 2008 at 9:12 pm
The sheriff accuses the news of just showing parts of the video, to get sympathy for Hope Steffy, when the news denies this, he THEN admits that he doesn’t know what video they have.
So the news asks for ALL video & audio that the sheriff’s dept has.
http://www.wkyc.com/video/player.aspx...
As of 04-14-2008 the sheriff’s dept has still NOT turned over all the video to Steffy’s lawyers or to the news.
One can only suspect that if this video was this bad the rest would certainly put them in jail for a long time.
The building video CLEARLY shows her being taped, while what looks to be the whole night shift, (4 men & 4 women) parade her down the hall. I guess the Sheriff’s web page that calls this a ‘unpleasant’ duty for his officers, doesn’t realize they have made a spectator sport out of it.
Link to Steffy’s lawsuit:
http://pamelahennessy.com/steffey.pdf
CUT&PASTE:
21. Gurlea drove to the Sheriff’s office with Hope in the back seat of his cruiser. On arrival at the Sheriff’s office, Gurlea left Hope in his cruiser for about 5 minutes and spoke with another deputy. It is unknown what was said by Gurlea to the other deputy. Gurlea then returned and told Hope to do exactly what the Sheriff’s staff said she should do and that she would then probably be going home that evening.
I smell a setup, this gets to stinking more & more.
john454 // April 30, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Just the stuff we know FOR SURE is enough to get these sadists jail time.
You don’t leave a victim without medical care.
You don’t have males on females, let alone EIGHT people to strip a handcuffed woman.
You don’t leave them naked, without at least a paper covering.
You don’t take them to be booked naked.
This has nothing to do with them thinking she was suicidal, it was almost CERTAINLY done to humiliate, embarrass, degrade and punish Hope Steffy.
And then there is all the disputed stuff that we have.
That she was attacked by the deputy without just cause.
That he pulled on her arm to get her ‘to react’ and then made it seem as if she was resisting.
Deputy and jailers claim that she was in mood swings, but NO VIDEO shows this.
That the deputy left her in the car, while he talked to someone at the jail. (This alone raises a red flag for me!!)
That she was told she could go home after questions.
That she was NEVER asked to remove her cloths.
That the officers attacked her without warning.
That her tooth & back were injured in the multiple attacks by police.
And then we have all the ‘missing’ video for icing on the cake…….
Tiger // May 25, 2008 at 8:52 am
For all you that think the cops can do waht ever they want! Remember your comments when their slamming your head into a wall or doing this to your wife or mother because your to fucking stupid to think this is wrong! The stark co sheriff denied that what was happening was a strip search so it can only be one thing sexual assault!
Bob King // June 2, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Oops… seems I forgot to drop the link code.
http://www.graphictruth.com/2008/04/sheriff-tim-swanson-likes-to-make-sure.html
My speculation IS sarcastic, but I do wonder why they were videotaping something that they knew had to be both criminal and actionable. Private stroke video does seem one possible purpose.
mac // July 10, 2008 at 11:08 am
I am in afghanistan and i see this assault!We have soldiers in prison for far less at abu graihb.
It is nothing less than torture and humiliation,Showing her that she is outnumbered , defencless,and anything they want to do to her is inevitable.If she was the AG’s wife,he wouldnt be idle and let it happen again.
Citizen // August 11, 2008 at 6:20 pm
This is the email that I wrote to the sherrif
Hello Sherrif,
I am not going to start this mail with pleasantries because I believe that will be a waste of my time. I recently came to know about the case of Hope Steffey. I was aghast to know how your deputies behaved with that woman. What surprises me even more is that you are shielding them instead of punishing them. You are claiming that “they followed the book”. Could you be kind enough to tell me which book says that male deputies can strip search a woman? What your deputies did was much worse than just strip search. They violated her modesty and used excessive force against her. You also denied that your deputies stripped Ms Steffey. Would you also say that the gruesome video of Ms Steffey circling around the internet is a fraud?
The behavior of your department has been extremely corrupt and repulsive. I can’t stop wondering while watching the video -”Is this America or Iraq?”. You and your department have brought shame not only to Stark county or Ohio but to the entire country. If you have any decency left, you should resign from your post after firing all the deputies involved and filing criminal cases against them, instead of posing with false pride on the website of the county sheriff website.
-A concerned citizen.
anthony // August 24, 2008 at 10:27 pm
im sorry to drop this bomb on americans, but women r subjected to stuff like this as a mater of routine in americas prisons. its one of americas best kept secrets. america is notorious to human rights organisations as having one of the most barbaric, inhumane, mysoginistic prison systems in the world. rape is a regular event every year in the pisons. women are regularly abused by being strip searched in front of men, or forced to take showers with men watching them. thier are so many cases i could mention iv lost count, so just look it up on the net. the thing that sadens me most is the fact that poeple seem to be oblivious to this. the reactions to the hope steffy abuse suggest that poeple think its an isolated incident, but stuff like this is just a matter of routine in the womens prisons, its that bad. thier is no better example of how many inhumane, mysoginistic scum men that are out thier than this issue. check out the valley state prisons high security unit and youl find out out just how much the word scum applies to the men that work thier and the authorities who run it. the shocking thing is these people will have wives and daughters. i wonder how much they know about what thier husband or father does to women on a daily basis, in the name of ’security’. prison guards and cops are inherantly inhumane people, because they are completely indifferent to the sexual humiliation and abuse that women experience when they are subjected to forced nudity in the presence of men.
Mel // September 1, 2008 at 9:22 pm
We want put this on our live show (Thursdays, 7pm). Does anyone have an update? We are still waiting to hear back from the other ’sources’ melshae@hotmail.com
D Stevens // December 7, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Obviously Stark County sanctions the use of legalized rape, sexual assault and torture under the color of authority on private citizens. I am sure the police are very proud of themselves.
stef // March 3, 2009 at 11:36 am
Anthony: You are correct in saying these things go on all the time and that America, notwithstanding its’ loud mouth propaganda about “democracy” (US is a republic) and freedom etc. is a country whose very beginnings were steeped in blood. For a country with a comparatively short historically existence, overflows with crimes against humanity. The US is a nation run by criminals protected by armed thugs (military, police, mercenaries and on and on). One of Faulkner’s protagonists described cops as “sadistic parasites” — exactly. For lots of evidence that the police is out of control (has been for decades) check out 24perday.com. Disgusting, but a real eye opener. Yours for 911 Truth.
John332 // April 6, 2009 at 7:19 am
UPDATE!!
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…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!
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!
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.)
This isn’t so much an investigation report as it is a smear campaign against Hope Steffey.
They are trying to say that Steffey was resisting enough that EIGHT people 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.
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?
Samuel L. // April 22, 2009 at 2:08 am
My fellow on Facebook shared this link with me and I’m not dissapointed that I came to your blog.