Cuyahoga County to pay inmate to settle lawsuit

CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County is expected to pay $140,000 to settle a lawsuit against a corrections officer who attacked an inmate as he prayed. The attack happened two days after the inmate interviewed with the U.S. Marshals Service during an investigation into poor conditions at the jail.

Cuyahoga County Council will decide Tuesday whether to formally approve the settlement in the case filed by former inmate Tyrone Hipps in U.S. District Court. Cuyahoga County Jail officer Christopher Perdue choked Hipps, a Muslim, as he tried to pray in his cell.

The lawsuit says Perdue attacked Hipps in retaliation for the interview with the marshals’ team that found “inhumane” conditions for inmates and a pattern of retaliation and abuse of inmates at the hands of jail officers.

Hipps also accused the county of failing to give him a proper diet, which he required because of his Muslim faith. The halal meals at the jail were “undersized and did not provide detainees or inmates with adequate nutrition,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit is one of several filed against the county accusing officers of attacking inmates, providing inadequate medical care and over the deaths of nine inmates in 2018 and 2019.

Hipps was one of several inmates who gave interviews during a threeday span in 2018 to a team of U.S. Marshals Service investigators and FBI agents in the wake of a string of inmate deaths — nine from June 2018 through May 2019.

The marshals’ report noted that officers threatened inmates on their way to and from interviews, sometimes within earshot of the marshals’ team.

Hipps, at the time of his Nov. 1 interview with the marshals, was jailed on charges of assaulting a police officer. He later pleaded guilty in the case and was sentenced to two years on probation.

Officers who work for the jail’s Special Response Team, noted in the marshals report for being particularly aggressive toward inmates, “hovered” over Hipps during the interview and sometimes interjected or cut him off, according to the lawsuit.

After the interview, an officer warned Hipps to expect retaliation, the lawsuit said. Two days later, as Hipps began his series of daily prayers, Perdue walked up to Hipps despite being assigned to work elsewhere in the jail.

Perdue ordered Hipps to pray elsewhere and later threatened to punish Hipps, the lawsuit says. Hipps picked up his prayer mat and told Perdue: “This is my religion. I could sue you for this,” according to the lawsuit.

Perdue responded: “I’ll give you something to sue for,” the lawsuit says. Perdue grabbed Hipps in a chokehold from behind, dragged him across the pod and slammed him into the ground, the lawsuit says.

Perdue’s body camera was not on at the time of the incident, according to the lawsuit.

Jail officials punished Hipps for the incident, putting him in an isolated cell for five days. Perdue taunted Hipps during his time in isolation, according to the lawsuit.

Assistant Warden Phillip Christopher later determined that Perdue’s version of events differed from Hipps and the jail surveillance video. Perdue was suspended for five days without pay as punishment, according to the lawsuit.