5 Cuyahoga County Corrections Officers Indicted

CLEVELAND — Five Cuyahoga County Corrections Center officers have been indicted, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced. The charges against the officers range from assault to unlawful restraint.

The five people charged by a Cuyahoga County grand jury were involved in three separate incidents over the span of nine months.

On July 16, 2018, the state said, Idris-Farid Clark and Robert P. Marsh sprayed an inmate with pepper foam. The inmate had been placed in a restraint chair by Marsh. The state is also accusing Marsh of assaulting the inmate while he was in restraints.

Clark has been charged with felonious assault, assault, interfering with civil rights and unlawful restraint. Marsh has been charged with assault, interfering with civil rights, and unlawful restraint.

On August 28, 2018, Martin Devring failed to secure the Cuyahoga County Correction Center and then falsified the log book to say the entire pod was secure, the state said. In fact, an inmate was in medical distress, Yost's office said.

Devring has been charged with tampering with records, dereliction of duty, and interfering with civil rights.

Finally, on March 22, 2019, Nicholas Evans and Timothy Dugan attacked an inmate that was in a restraining chair, the state said. The inmate was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Evans has been charged with felonious assault, unlawful restraint, tampering with evidence, and interfering with civil rights. Dugan has also been charged with felonious assault, unlawful restraint, and interfering with civil rights.

This is the latest mark against the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, which has been lambasted for its treatment of inmates in recent months. The U.S. Marshals released a report in late 2018 detailing their concerns with the facility, calling it dangerously overcrowded, and noted that inmates' rights were routinely ignored.

Cuyahoga County Sheriff Cliff Pickney said in October 2018, after a string of inmate deaths at the Corrections Center, that his office was "very concerned." He promised to do what was necessary to ensure the safety of everyone within the jail system.

In 2018, seven inmates died while at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, Cleveland Scene noted.