Two guards are facing charges for assaulting a woman who was jailed for a traffic warrant.
Chantelle Glass ended up Cuyahoga County Jail in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 16 after an altercation with a family member. She was not charged for the domestic dispute, but she was taken to jail due to a warrant related to a missed traffic court appearance.
Glass wanted to call someone to let them know she was in jail, but the corrections officers denied her request when she refused to pick up a spoon lying on the ground.
“After that it went downhill,” Glass told Cleveland.com.
A female corrections officer threatened to have her “maced and strapped to a chair.”
Glass began to make loud noises to get the guards’ attention, and the threat became a reality.
She was handcuffed and taken to a cell with a restraint chair. The 29-year-old said she walked to the chair willingly but verbally insulted the officers after they denied her request for a phone call again. When Glass was finally restrained, officer Robert Marsh punched her in the head. Cpl. Idris-Farid Clark followed with a torrent of pepper spray. Glass, who suffers from asthma, feared for her life.
“That day, I thought I was going to die,” Glass said. “I sat in that cell I prayed to God that I wouldn’t die because I couldn’t breathe. I prayed that I wouldn’t die there.”
The guards poured water over Glass and left her in the cell for two hours with no medical attention.
“Everything was burning,” she said. “I had bad aches and my eyes hurt. And I still didn’t get my phone call.”
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Even though the incident happened eight months ago, Marsh and Clark continued to work until they were placed on unpaid leave on April 9.
“I don’t understand why they were still working,” Glass said. “It’s unjust they were still working and still getting a paycheck.”
The mother of three deals with flashbacks and anxiety since the incident.
Marsh and Clark were indicted on April 8. Clark was charged with second-degree felony assault, interfering with civil rights and unlawful restraint. Marsh was charged with several misdemeanors including assault, unlawful restraint and interfering with civil rights.
Marsh and Clark are two out of five officers facing charges related to the mistreatment of those incarcerated under their watch, according to WOSU. The officers were indicted by a special grand jury after a report from the U.S. Marshals Service condemned the “inhumane” conditions in the jail. The investigation was opened after Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish expressed concern about inmate deaths.
Corrections officer Martin Devring was charged with tampering with records, dereliction of duty and interfering with civil rights after he didn’t request medical attention for inmate Joseph Arquillo, who later died. Devring reportedly saw an unresponsive Arquillo lying on the floor of his cell but did not check to see if anything was wrong. An autopsy determined he died of a drug overdose.
Two other corrections officers, Nicholas Evans and Timothy Dugan, were charged with felonious assault, unlawful restraint and interfering with civil rights for attacking Terrance Debose. Debose was placed in a restraint chair and punched until he sustained a concussion. Like Glass, he was left there for two hours without any medical attention.
The officers will be arraigned on April 22, and Glass plans to be present for every hearing.
“I just want to see justice done,” she said. “I’m going to be at every hearing to make sure something gets done about this. I don’t want this to happen to someone else.”
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