News: Ohio's AG Will Investigate Hope Steffey Case
NBC channel WKYC is reporting that Tim Swanson, the Sheriff of Stark County, Ohio (where 41-year-old Hope Steffey was arrested, strip-searched, and locked in a jail cell stark raving nude) has formally requested that the Ohio AG's office investigate the case.
The AG, Mark Dann, has replied that his office stands ready and willing to conduct the investigation. One wonders why it took so long, but.
The Cuyahoga County Sheriff, Gerald McFaul, spoke to WKYC:
He called the conduct by Stark County sheriff deputies "way out of line." McFaul went on to say that male deputies should never forcibly remove the clothes of a female.Way out of line is right. Even if she had been the perpetrator, and not the victim of the crime, unless they had reason to believe she had a weapon or drugs on her, there was no need for the law enforcement officials to strip-search her. And above all, there was absolutely no need for two male officers to strip-search a female prisoner.
Let us hope that this case results in swift justice for Tarika Wilson, and marks the first of a long line of cases that turn back the recent abysmal record of human-rights violations that will forever remain the shameful legacy of the Bush administration.
Note: The first report of this incident stated that Ms. Steffey was 47, not 41, years of age.
Details of the case, and of Tarika Wilson's case are here.
Labels: abuse, bush, civil rights, constitution, disgrace, human rights, misogyny, social justice, women's rights
Stumble It!
posted by ThePoliticalCat @ 7:57 PM
11 Comments:
They should be investigated not only by the state AG but by the FBI.
By the way, the blogger refers to "...the recent abysmal record of human-rights violations that will forever remain the shameful legacy of the Bush administration." Talk about Bush Derangement Syndrome at its finest! What on earth does Stark County's malfeasances have to do with the Bush administration? The sheriff, Timothy Swanson, is a Democrat. Furthermore, the county seems rife with Democrats.
Source:
http://www.starkdemocrats.com/elected_officials.php
Get a grip on reality before blithering inanely.
john q, as the blithering blogger in question, I'll point to the Bushies' record on human rights violations over the past X years &mdash the violent arrest of a man who told Dick Cheney he disagreed with Cheney's policies coupled with Cheney's refusal to release videotapes or bodyguard testimony about the incident; the attacks on peaceful protestors everywhere; sending armed Blackwater mercenaries into New Orleans when the National Guard, who are supposed to be the first responders to such crises, "could not enter," and the Coast Guard were ordered not to continue rescuing people in imminent danger of death. Fear not, I will chronicle all this in great detail, complete with links. If it weren't such a gargantuan task, I would have done so already. I leave you with this final piece of information: it is not derangement to point out factual instances of malfeasance. If you think the Bushies' repeated violations of human rights have had no effect on state, local, and even international, bodies, you have not been paying attention.
How you can, in good conscience, sleep at night while simultaneously accusing others of "Bush Derangement Syndrome," when the derangee in question has so grossly and repeatedly violated basic human decency, is beyond me.
You, in your blog, use the actions of deputies under a Democrat sheriff (who "stands by" his deputies) in what appears to be a Democrat county, to make a case against Bush, who is apparently the cause of all the world's misery dating back to the eruption of Vesuvius. I repeat: you use a scandal involving a Democrat sheriff to prop your case against Bush -- you have any idea how backwards that is? Now you're off on some tangent involving New Orleans, some vague citation of a "violent arrest" of a "man" who was a Cheney detractor, etc,etc. You embarrass yourself, and don't even have the perception or basic objectivity to realize it. If you want to talk about the evils of the Bush administration, fine, but don't shove it obliquely into a blog that relates to misbehavior of a Democrat-run department; it doesn't tie together. It just come across as silly and tedious. Stick to the point, and yammer about Iraq, New Orleans, and Halliburton in a blog other than the one that supposedly deals with the Stark County strip search incident.
Dear me, you are an idiot, aren't you? "in a blog other than the one that supposedly deals with the Stark County strip search incident"? I know of no such blog as deals solely with the Stark County incident.
Read the blogheader. This blog was created to post my opinions on human rights, women's rights, the rights of children, workers' rights, et cetera. As for my using the "actions of deputies ... blah, blah, blah, ad nauseam ad infinitum," the point I'm making, which appears to be skirting the point on top of your head by a fair margin, is that abuse of the law and of basic rights such as those enshrined in the constitution and various other documents pertaining to the rights of the denizens of this fair nation and this fair world, is a top-down proposition. If the leaders do not obey the law, their followers will not either. You choose to classify that as "a tangent." Well, if what I have to say does not please you, my good man, you're welcome to take your eyeballs elsewhere, if you get my drift.
Given the intelligence of your heretofore discourse, I'll opine that drift is something you wouldn't get if you were clinging to the last log spinning in it.
Intelligence, it appears, is in short supply these days. A fact that causes us much grief, but in insufficient levels for us to spend our time discoursing with those possessed, as it were, of such. Lack, that is. Of, to be more specific, intelligence. Heh.
And with that, I bid you a good &mdash but less than excellent &mdash day.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Aww, sorry if I touched a nerve. You really are all over the place, though. Debate team material you ain't. The article title and the page title explicitly, specifically, unequivocally stipulates that this particular installment is about the Stark County affair. Then you slide that ham-handed remark about Bush in.
Whatever the rest of your bloggin' website is about, I have no clue, and could care less. Looking at the dearth of comments -- and, one could deign to extrapolate, the lack of readership -- represented on this page, you should be happy anyone at all is responding to your misguided sophomoric knee-jerk silliness. (Yes, even a cretinous mental incompetent such as me. ROFLMAO!)
And then you keep posting these increasingly angry, increasingly frantic replies, digging yourself deeper and deeper into the mire of your own irrational diatribe. It's almost amusing to watch.
Anyway, what it amounts to is, you want to lay the shortcomings of the Democrat-run Stark County Sheriff's Dept. at the feet of W. Yup, that's BDS alright, in its purest form.
As you may or may not know the grand jury has decided not to bring charges against anyone.
Logically you may think they saw more or different evidence, and thats why they let everyone off.
But that might not be the case. No one knows what evidence was presented or was ruled prejudicial.
NO evidence presented to them can be discussed.
BTW I know for a FACT that the stark county jail kept information from the grand jury investigators.
Suprise huh?
Sheriff Swanson said that they would have no comment until the investigation was over.
Ok! Its over, now call Sheriff Swanson and ask him questions.
(330) 430-3800
Electronic mail
strkshrf@raex.com
Heres a couple series of film strips, both with one of the deputies holding Hope Steffy and the other deputy with his head down at her butt and his hands blurred out at her genitalia.
Q1 Doesn't this qualify as a "visual body cavity" inspection? (So what ARE they doing?)
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/CavityNoBlue.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/CavityBlue.jpg
Q2 Why were men there at all since there were enough women? (8 people)
Count them:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/Steff1.jpg
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/Steff2.jpg
Q3 Men can not be present in a strip search.
Men can not be present in a body cavity search.
Men are not even supposed to be where they can SEE women in showers.
But after 2 years and NO mention of anything, just as the grand jury thing is going on, why do you come out in a grandstand play and say that men are not only allowed to VIEW a forced stripping of a woman during a "suicide prevention", they are actually allowed to PARTICIPATE?!?!???
Q4 Police state Steffy was drunk, what was her breathalyser reading?
There are more questions, but don't worry, you'll NEVER get an answer to these....I've already tried.
As soon as you mention Hope's name you'll hit the 'wall of silence/resistance' from EVERYONE in the Stark County jail.
Well the CantonRep paper has posted ALL the strip video, or what they claim to have of it. Unbelievable!
http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=433316&r=0&Category=15&subCategoryID=0
Officials at Stark County & the State saying they could see nothing wrong with this video. And a few people on other sites have agreed with them!
BUT just so we’re all on the same page, lets review the video….
First of all, this video STARTS after Steffy is already forced down on the bunk. The camera operator tells investigators she doesn’t know WHY the whole recording isn’t there. And the piece that is “missing” is exactly when Steffy claimed she was never asked to remove her cloths & was assaulted by the staff. No problems with the ‘magic’ camera…RIGHT?
Plus what Swanson & the officials are saying is that not only is it ok for 8 people, men & women to be present, the men are also allowed to remove a woman’s cloths. EVEN if there are enough women there to do it.
And if a woman ‘reacts’ to being stripped by men & women, with spectators also standing there, while being videoed, the men are not ONLY allowed to RESTRAIN her, they are also allowed to pull her arms in submission holds, while yelling for her to “STOP IT”.
And then AFTER she is already stripped naked, its STILL ok for the men to put her in an arm bar submission hold, if she starts screaming while they force her crossed legs against her butt, while waiting to “change a mat”.
And its also ok for the camera, which is supposed to be on the prisoner at ALL times, to deliberately swing away so you can’t tell what they are doing to her. No problem here too RIGHT?
===== Yeah, just having a couple men TWICE her size, and a couple women, JUST restraining her isn’t enough, if she doesn’t cooperate, they can also TORTURE her into SUBMISSION. =====
And then once they leave, these “professionals” can have a good laugh…I guess they didn’t realize the camera was STILL running.
THIS is what ALL the Swanson supporters are good with…RIGHT?
Because Swanson and the “investigators” are OK with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDRsCkc-9k0
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?
Not sure that link was good, here it is again, just to make sure:
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/?action=view¤t=BCI-Report.jpg
Thank you very much, Zemo. I'll try to update this post today, or rather, update the report with a new post.
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