Woman punched by guard while handcuffed settles for $70K
Guard pleaded guilty to assault, agreed to resign.
Cuyahoga CLEVELAND —
County and the city of Euclid will pay a combined $70,000 to a woman who said a corrections officer punched her in 2015 while she was handcuffed to a chair at the Euclid Jail, her attorney said.
Lucille Dumas, 57, of Cleveland, said in a lawsuit filed in 2016 that Sheriff ’s Department Corporal Madeline Chappell repeatedly punched her, pepper sprayed her, drenched her with water and struck her in the face with a Tupperware container after she was arrested in January 2015 in a drunken driving case. Dumas later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges.
Chappell carried out some of her actions, which came after Dumas and Chappell began arguing, after corrections officers placed Dumas in a restraint chair, court filings say.
Chappell later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, was sentenced to probation and agreed to resign and never seek another job in law enforcement. Dumas also contended in her lawsuit, first filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court and later moved to federal court, that other corrections officers and a Euclid police sergeant were present but did not intervene.
The county took over the Euclid Jail several years ago.
A settlement for Dumas’ lawsuit was brokered last week by a mediator. Peter Pattakos, Dumas’ attorney, said the city of Euclid and the county agreed to pay the settlement, but he would not say how much each government entity would pay.
“The senseless and needless attack on Ms. Dumas by a Cuyahoga County corrections officer was a grave violation of her constitutional rights, and one that could have been easily stopped by other officers who witnessed it,” Pattakos said in an email. “Ms. Dumas hopes that by her lawsuit she’s helped ensure that the county and the City of Euclid will better train their officers to intervene in situations where their colleagues engage in needless violence against citizens, and that no one else will have to endure what she did.”