Jail pepper spray case to go to trial in March
Pepper-spray case being handled by Cincinnati prosecutors.
A Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office captain was shown on a 2015 video spraying an inmate in a seven-point harness.
The Montgomery County Sheriff ’s Office captain charged with misdemeanor assault for pepper-spraying an inmate in a restraint chair had her trial scheduled for March 22.
Capt. Judith Sealey did not appear in court We d nesday afternoon, but defense attorney Anthony VanNoy and Cincinnati Prosecutor’s Office assistant Natalia Harris met with Dayton Municipal Court Judge Christopher Roberts before the pretrial hearing.
Neither attorney spoke to media after they met privately in a conference room after the court hearing. VanNoy said he had to go leave immediately to tend to another case, while Harris said neither her nor her office would comment.
Sealey was a sergeant in November 2015 when video shows she sprayed inmate Amber Swink while Swink was in a seven-point harness.
The case is being handled by the Cincinnati Prosecutor’s Office because Dayton City Prosecutor Stephanie Cook — a member of a Montgomery County Jail oversight committee — said it would be seen as a potential conflict of interest for her office to try the case.
Sealey, who has filed for possible medical disability retirement, has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
VanNoy has said Sealey did not commit a crime. An internal review of the incident has
not been made public and may be ongoing, according to sheriff ’s office employees.
“We believe that Judy followed the training that was available to her at the time,” VanNoy said in August. “Although the video seems to depict a particular thing, we believe that Judy did not break the law in the context of a criminal matter.”
A grand jury earlier this year declined to indict Sealey on felony charges and findings of a federal probe into this incident and other jail issues have not been announced.
The pepper-spraying incident drew national and inter- national coverage as a poten- tial example of police brutality. A civil lawsuit brought by Swink was settled for $375,000.
In an exclusive interview with the Dayton Daily News earlier this month, retired Sgt. Eric Banks said he and another sergeant brought the video to a local attorney and to the FBI because they feared a cover-up.
“The sheriff ’s office is mad that a couple people crossed that coveted blue line and told the truth about what happened,” Banks told this news organization.
VanNoy said Sealey never asked anyone to destroy any evidence.