VIDEO SHOWS INCIDENT CITED IN MONTGOMERY INMATE’S SUIT
Montgomery officer accused of ‘brutal and excessive force.’
Video obtained by the attorney of the woman who filed suit against Montgomery County Jail staff shows an altercation between the inmate and a corrections officer.
Marsha Pate-Strickland claimed that, while an inmate at the jail two years ago, she wanted to exchange her juice for milk.
That’s when the 60-year-old was ordered to stand up, then was forcefully grabbed by corrections officer (CO) David Stemp and “violently swung” around before her right shoulder and arm were slammed to the floor, according to a federal lawsuit filed against
the county, Sheriff Phil Plummer and others.
This news organization has requested the video and other records, including Stemp’s personnel file, from the Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office. A copy of the video was obtained from Pate-Strickland’s attorney, Douglas Brannon.
The video — which has no audio — shows male inmates passing out breakfast items to several women in the female waiting area at about 5:30 a.m. Sept. 8, 2015.
A corrections officer approaches Pate-Strickland, and the two have a conversation before Pate-Strickland stands up and the officer reaches toward the inmate’s left arm.
When Pate-Strickland pulls her arm away, the officer is shown grabbing the inmate by her left arm, pulling her, spinning her and taking her down to the floor.
“There’s just no reason for this kid — well, I call him a kid, the CO — to grab onto this 60-year-old woman and fling her around,” Brannon said.
The Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office declined to comment on the incident or the lawsuit.
Pate-Strickland immediately complained of an injury. Defendant Greg Mills, a nurse for Naphcare, Inc., performed a visual inspection “and concluded that she suffered no injury” because the shoulder did not appear to be “out of place” and handed Pate-Strickland an ice pack, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed Sept. 6 and the county has not yet filed a response.
The lawsuit filed in Dayton’s U.S. District Court claims Mills refused to send Pate-Strickland to a hospital and that she complained to other jail staff. Naphcare, Inc. is the contracted provider for medical care in the jail. An attorney for Naphcare did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.
Pate-Strickland sought medical attention at an area hospital after her release from jail and was diagnosed with a “comminuted right humeral head/neck fracture,” according to the lawsuit.
A 2015 list of Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office use of force reports obtained by this news organization shows that on Sept. 8, 2015, Stemp used a “take down/balance displacement” against an inmate because of “safety risk to self/others; ignored verbal direction/passively resisted; displayed physical danger cues; aggressively resisted.”
Pate-Strickland was booked in Sept. 7, 2015, on a misdemeanor assault accusation brought by another woman in her building that was dropped, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office.
Pate-Strickland was released Sept. 9, according to jail records. The lawsuit said Pate-Strickland was released Sept. 10, 2015.
The lawsuit claims that the actions by Stemp were “brutal and excessive force” and “cruel and unusual.”
The suit claims Pate-Strickland’s injuries are permanent and debilitating and that she’s been required to seek various therapies.