WKYC reports that a 5th woman has come forward with allegations that Stark County law enforcement officials forced her to strip unlawfully:
“Elizabeth” fears reprisals for speaking out so she prefers we not use her last name.
She says a Stark County Sheriff’s deputy pulled her over one night for failing to signal during a lane change. Elizabeth says she had to undergo a field sobriety test. According to the officer’s incident report, she failed some aspects of the test. She was arrested for driving under the influence and taken to the station for further testing.
She was told to blow into a breathylyzer, but she suffers from asthma. When she failed to produce enough air, she says a deputy told her, “Baby we both know you can blow harder than that. She says a second deputy laughed. The officer marked her as a “refusal” for not blowing harder.
She was told to blow into a breathylyzer, but she suffers from asthma. When she failed to produce enough air, she says a deputy told her, “Baby we both know you can blow harder than that. She says a second deputy laughed. The officer marked her as a “refusal” for not blowing harder.
[…]
When Elizabeth was told to remove all her clothes, she did so voluntarily saying she worked at a medium security prison in Ohio and knew her clothes would be forcibly removed if she failed to obey.
The incident report says Elizabeth wanted to commit suicide. But she says that’s just not true. “I’ve never been suicidal. I’m not suicidal. I was terrified,” she told the Investigator.
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 remove their clothing when detained at the Stark County Jail:
Dyshko came forward to tell her story after she learned of Hope Steffey, the Stark County woman who was stripped naked by both men and women and left in a jail cell for 6 hours.
Dyshko says video of Steffey’s treatment reminded her of what she experienced 2 years ago inside the same jail.
Dyshko came to North Canton nine years ago, she says, to escape the fear of KGB persecution in Ukraine. Her ordeal inside the Stark County Jail stemmed from a home schooling issue. She says there was some confusion over the use of certain textbooks. “It was all a big mix-up”, said her attorney Dennis Niermann.
Dyskho was educating 2 of her 8 children at home. She received a notice from the Stark County Sheriff about a warrant for her arrest from the Stark County Family Court. When Dyshko arrived at the Sheriff’s office, she says she was quickly handcuffed and thrown in jail on a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
After this mother of 8 spent 3 days behind bars, a judge reviewed her case and quickly dismissed the case.
Lawyers for Dyhsko say she had to remove all her clothes because someone inside the jail determined she was suicidal. Dyshko says she’s never been suicidal. She complained to Channel 3 News that the gown she was given in the jail kept falling down, and at times, exposed her naked chest to male guards. “She was asked to remove her clothes and her undergarments. What’s the purpose of that? It’s demeaning,” said Niermann.
Attorney David Malik believes these cases are indicative of “a pattern where apparently every woman who cries or gets emotional is deemed suicidal.” Hey now, a textbook mix up is serious business; those crazy home schoolers who turn themselves in of their own accord obviously present a dire threat to not only themselves but also those poor, defenceless law enforcement officials. Besides, everyone knows the only surefire cure for hysteria–and the only way to keep everyone involved safe–is for detained women to remove all constricting clothes.
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.
This is absolutely mind boggling. 15 months ago, after having called police because she had been assaulted, an Ohio woman was arrested for “disorderly conduct” and charged with “resisting arrest”. What happened next is, in my opinion, a textbook example of excessive force (and, later, what some might call sexual assault) perpetuated by butched-up cops intoxicated by the entitlement that comes packaged with a badge and a gun.
According to Salem News, Hope Steffey is suing the Stark County Sheriff’s department for “assault, battery, unreasonable seizure and deliberate indifference by failing to provide adequate medical care.” Her husband, Greg, the athletic director at Salem High School, is also named as a claimant in the suit for “damage from “unreasonable governmental actions by the defendants.””
Named as defendants are Sheriff Timothy A. Swanson, the three commissioners, Deputy Richard T. Gurlea, along with John and Jane Does numbers one through 15.
The Stark County Sheriff reportedly denied the allegations.
The narrative of court documents said that on Oct. 20, 2006 Hope Steffey was allegedly assaulted by another woman on Weimer Dr. S.E. and Gurlea responded, questioned Steffey and asked for identification and she “mistakenly” produced the driver’s license of her dead sister, which she kept as a personal memento.
She immediately recognized her mistake and asked for it back, but Gurlea allegedly refused.
Documents say she “begged” for the return of her license but it wasn’t returned.
The deputy then ran a computer check of the right license and Steffey’s cousin noticed a bald spot on her head from the assault.
The cousin “reminded” the deputy that Steffey was the victim while advising Steffey of the hair loss which made her visibly upset.
The documents alleged Gurlea failed to call for medical assistance despite knowledge Steffey was injured.
Gurlea the, documents allege, warned Steffey to calm down and Steffey replied she was upset and could exercise her freedom of speech and her cousin again attempted to remind the deputy that Steffey was the victim and she had been knocked unconscious by the assailant.
The deputy allegedly refused to acknowledge her injuries.
Court documents said that after searching Steffey’s car, he turned to the two and questioned the cousin when Steffey asked for her sister’s license back.
Gurlea allegedly turned angrily and responded “shut up about your dead sister.”
Steffey pointed her finger at her sister’s license in the deputy’s pocket and said, “she was here, she was someone” and Gurlea allegedly, suddenly exploded into a rage and allegedly slammed her face into his cruiser breaking a tooth, and pinning her against the cruiser, allegedly saying, “are you going to stop?”
The documents allege Gurlea then threw her to the ground causing cuts and bruises and with the weight of his body on her she could not breathe.
Steffey was then handcuffed and told to sit in the cruiser.
Sit down, shut up and don’t even think that you have any rights–soundfamiliar?
Once at the station, the ordeal continued as Steffey was forcibly strip searched by 7 sheriff’s deputies–including 2 men.
Eventually, Steffey was arrested and taken to the Stark County Jail, charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. But once in custody, her attorney says seven jail workers, male and female, forcibly removed Steffey of all her clothes, including her undergarments, while she lay face down in handcuffs. Local news footage shows Steffey wailing, asking “What are you doing?!?”
“And you have to ask yourself, what was the purpose of the strip search?” said Steffey’s lawyer. “What was the necessity of it? This was a disorderly conduct claim.“
As noted by The Raw Story, even though it is department policy for “officers conducting any strip search to be of the same sex”, Stark County Sheriff Timothy A. Swanson is trying to claim that Steffy was not actually strip searched. Yeah. And I’m sure that leaving her naked in a freezing cold cell for seven hours and denying medical assistance doesn’t constitute “cruel and unusual”, either.
Watch the video* and decide for yourselves. Just remember: Hope Steffy was the one who was assaulted, first by a member of the general public, then (allegedly) by a law enforcement official who had been summoned by Steffey’s cousin for assistance (“The cousin “reminded” the deputy that Steffey was the victim“). Later, after having been arrested for apparently no good reason other than the arbitrary whim of an overzealous (read: power-mad) sheriff’s deputy, Steffey was subsequently “raped without penetration” by those who are supposed to serve and protect the general public (so says the rumour mill, anyway).
Libby Spencer gets an unequivocal “hear hear” from yours truly:
I don’t believe in violence, but if she doesn’t win her court case and these cretins skate, I hope the good citizens of this town riot on the streets. This really shouldn’t happen in America.
Unfortunately, all too often it does happen, both in America and north of the border. Once again, we are reminded that, as far too many law enforcement officials are concerned, blind obedience on the part of the citizenry is paramount (“are you going to stop?”)
Welcome to 21st century policing, where excessive force is operational policy.
bastard.logic 