Hope Steffey Update: State Attorney General To Investigate
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.
39 Responses to “Hope Steffey Update: State Attorney General To Investigate”
Trackbacks / Pingbacks
- - March 12, 2008
- - April 3, 2008
- - April 10, 2008
- - February 16, 2012
Leave a Reply
#rebelleft
Recent Comments
GlobalComment
- An American Downton Abbey? ABC’s Gilded Lilys tries on the costume drama s.e. smith
- Sex Online? The Ultra-Orthodox Rally Against the Internet Emily Manuel
- A Study in Pink: Sherlock and Steven Moffat’s Woman Problem s.e. smith
- What’s behind the rise of Golden Dawn in Greece? Feature Writer
- Reflections on an Arab Spring in Peril Nasser Ali Khasawneh
Alterdestiny
- All The Power To The Top noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
- Now The Serpent Was More Subtil... noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
- Who Made That Butterball For You? noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
- Historical Image of the Day noreply@blogger.com (Erik Loomis)
- Reagan by Eugene Jarecki noreply@blogger.com (Redbeard)
WorldBridge: Refugees International’s Blog
- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
LabourStart
- Chile: Outsourced Chilean Copper Workers '21st Century Slave Labour'
- Egypt: Union movement finds its own strength; workers are now crafting a new network to secure workplace rights
- Australia: World's richest woman makes more profits by off-shoring Australian jobs
- Korea (North): Amnesty report: 200,000 prisoners in Kim's Gulag
- Cambodia: Security guards clash with workers at factories that supply Levi’s, Gap and H&M
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.
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
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.
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?
i luv cops
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.
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.
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.
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
You can contact Tim Swanson, Stark County Sheriff responsible for this at:
strkshrf@raex.com
why are the videos removed from the internet? do they have a strong control over this? and even web contents?
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.
In which I speculate idly about The Timster’s Turgid Trooper, their motivations and early influences.
Illustrated. :>
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.
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…….
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
My fellow on Facebook shared this link with me and I’m not dissapointed that I came to your blog.
I was always puzzled by all the news sources saying that there was “confusion” when the cops arrived.
I’m thinking what “confusion”? All the evidence I have contradicts that.
They have everyone there saying that Steffey was the victim; even the cousin is saying it on video. Plus the brother of the attacker calls the cops on his own sister.
Heck even in the court transcripts, the cop testifies under oath that he went to his car to document Steffey’s injuries. His testimony seems to point out that he knew who the victim was.
And the cops are on tape talking about Steffey’s niece getting arrested the month before for another assault charge, and Gurlea testifies that he has everyone looking for Steffey’s missing hair.
Plus Gurlea is on the arrest tape talking to Steffey as if he knows she is the victim, telling her that even though he is arresting her for disorderly & resisting, he will still investigate the assault she had reported.
So WHY are the papers saying there was “confusion”!?!?
It doesn’t make sense.
Well first of all Gurlea testified at court that he did not finish the assault investigation as he had told Steffey he would on the arrest video. His excuse was that Steffey was in no shape to help with the investigation.
Would that mean that every victim that is knocked unconscious or killed will never have a chance to have their case solved?
Plus it leaves out the fact that Steffey went back to the station 4 days later to file complaints. So she was still in no shape to help with the investigation?
This also seems on the surface to make no sense.
But then I found out that the police did go as far as to take TWO written witness statements, and they were from Steffey’s alleged attacker & her brother… (Who she no doubt threatened into it, since she didn’t know at that time he was the one who called the cops)…and the woman that she thought had called the police did testify at court that she had threatened her.
But why just two statements?
Testimony at the trial said there were several people present. Why not get statements from everyone there that was a witness?
Again, these police actions seem to make no sense.
So we have the arresting cop, Richard T. Gurlea Jr., testifying at Steffey’s trial that the ‘investigation’ into the assault was never finished.
REALLY?!!? Then how do they explain the assault charges against Steffey in the incident report they filled out?
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/Incident-Report-Assault.jpg
Yes, that’s right, no news source ever reported that Steffey was listed in the incident report as being arrested for the assault that she had reported!!
NOW if you go back and look at their actions that “made no sense”, suddenly this last piece of the puzzle seems to put it all together.
It would seem to indicate that the cops were slanting the evidence to try to frame Steffey for the assault that she had reported!
They of course never tried to charge her with the crime, because even with slanting the investigation by taking only witness statements from her alleged attacker they probably knew they’d never get a conviction on that charge.
Another thing no news source ever reported was that Steffey was NEVER given a chance to remove her own clothes, even though this was made very clear in the BCI’s own report. But news sources always reported that Swanson had said that she had been given a chance, even after they knew this was not true.
Also never reported in any news sources is the fact that after they had stripped Steffey and videoed the cell being locked, it was IMMEDIATELY opened again, and some entered her cell without video taping evidence.
There is also a lot of video posted on YouTube. All the videos seem to disprove the officer’s claims that she was physically abusive. But people can see for themselves.
Here’s the first in a series. This video shows Steffey when she first arrives at the station:
These aren’t the only lies I have caught the Stark County Sheriff’s Dept in, or omissions I have caught the news in, but for that I’d need to write a book instead of a rebuttal.
UPDATE:
Ok here’s a video you won’t see on the news.
Here’s 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.
But as you can see after they video the cell being locked, they IMMEDIATLY open her cell again.
(NO video of what was done then!)
The rest all stand around and seem to have a good laugh.
As you can see from the video the big guy 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.
You just have to wonder where their SWAT team is.
WHY DON’T THEY JUST SELL TICKETS?!?!?!?
BUT THEN the camera seems to malfunction, and the next thing you see is a empty hall. BUT only ONE second has passed on the time marks!
WOW, …..MORE “missing” video from Stark County Sheriff’s Dept.
Contacted John Boccieri today about the money he just got for the sheriff’s office. Asked him to get new cameras instead and to see what he could do about the jail policies that they admit are still having men strip women & leave them naked.
LETS ALL CALL!!
Be sure to point out this Sheriff is named in a LOT of lawsuits (7 or 8) and this crap needs to be stopped NOW.
Contact Me
I am here to serve the residents of the 16th Congressional District, and so is my staff.
We can be reached in Washington D.C.at (202) 225-3876, in Canton at (330) 489-4414 , or Toll Free at (800) 826-9015.
Boccieri District Office
300 W Tuscarawas St.
Suite 716
Canton, OH 44702
(330) 489-4414
(800)826-9015
Boccieri DC Office:
1516 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3876
http://boccieri.house.gov/index.php?…=article&id=78
Deputies drop suit vs. WKYC over Hope Steffey report
Just as I have said all along this would NEVER get to a trial. There is just no way for the cops to justify what was done to Steffey.
http://www.cantonrep.com/news/crime/x1631834888/Lawsuit-against-WKYC-dropped
UPDATE:
Got the FBI stuff yesterday 2-23-2010. I just got a chance to read it all today. (What there was of it.)
This is worse than I thought, it was a “joint investigation” by the FBI & the BCI.
So basically I got the same BS cop reports, that I got from the state, only these had even more stuff blocked out than the stuff I got from the state!
And comparing what the FBI blocked to what was in the SAME state reports, it looks as though the FBI was trying to get rid of ANYTHING that would make the cops look bad.
So basically the sheriff supplied ALL the evidence to the BCI.
Then the BCI took all the police reports, rubber stamped them as fact, even though the evidence didn’t support them.
And then the FBI copied everything the BCI got from the sheriff, overlooked all the conflicting reports, testimony, & videos (& lies from the sheriff), and rubber stamped their reports as fact also.
Also since they copied the BCI “investigation” verbatim (plagiarized) they have stuff WRONG in their copies of it.
The FBI says that the BCI is investigating if Steffey’s civil rights were violated, but the BCI report states the EXACT OPPOSITE, and in fact it is the FBI that is supposed to be investigating her civil rights violations!!!
NO WHERE in ALL of this “evidence” was there ANY effort to look at anything OTHER THAN THE POLICE REPORTS.
No other witness interviews other than cops, no rebuttal from Steffey herself or her witnesses….NOTHING!
I plan on contacting the FBI more about information, but since there was no effort to actually investigate this case, I know already that the information I am going to ask for isn’t going to be there.
I will also go over ALL the discrepancies from what was claimed to what the evidence shows.
But AGAIN there is no effort from “investigators” to find out the truth of what was really going on that night. (They don’t even bother to explain any of the discrepancies in the evidence they DID gather!)
This is really unbelievable….Grrrrr
“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it . . . ; Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.”— David Ogilvy
Thanks that helps alot, I knew someone understood.
Been a while since the last post, there is even more…it’s just too bad all of the cops lies never came out right away.
Instead I had to fight for information through years of FOIA requests. And then I was only able to get the information that the Sheriff had supplied the state & FBI.
Never got any of the other side of the story except what was in testimony at Steffey’s kangaroo trial.
But even with just getting the States evidence it should have been enough to put these criminals behind bars.
A motivating discussion is definitely worth comment. I do think that you should publish more about this subject matter, it may not be a taboo subject but usually people don’t discuss such issues. To the next! Many thanks!!
I have always said I would have to write a book to get it all down. Or have a website with all the proof there….the hardest part is trying to go through all the evidence, and the you run into another piece that shows the cops LIED again!
And you have to wonder WHY investigator’s covered this up and still refused to bring criminal charges against everyone involved.
Like I said the cops tried to frame Steffey, which is probably why they tried to say there was confusion….the only problem is that there is NO EVIDENCE that there was confusion, and in fact all the evidence showed exactly the opposite!