Prison staff won’t face charges in inmate death
Pickaway County Prosecutor Judy Wolford said she won't bring criminal charges against prison staff involved in the beating death of 55-year-old Michael Mcdaniel.
“I have declined to take the case as I am unable to prove intent on the part of any of the (corrections officers) and/ or nurses,” she said in an email to the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau.
The Ohio Highway Patrol sent its investigative report on Mcdaniel to Wolford in July. That same month, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction released its internal report and security camera footage of the events of Feb. 6.
Jada Mcdaniel, the deceased's sister, said “I'm really angry, pissed, upset and disappointed...and I'm sad that my brother lost his life in a facility that was supposed to rehabilitate him. Instead he got killed.”
Mcdaniel said she hired a lawyer and will push for justice. “This is ridiculous. How can you look at this and say there is nothing criminal? That is a
blatant disrespect for human life.”
The video shows two female guards pulled Mcdaniel out of his cell and immediately behind a stairwell, out of view of the camera. All three fall to the floor and more staff arrive to handcuff him and escort him out of the housing unit.
Although compliant, Mcdaniel was shoved to the floor again. Then, while walking in the snowy prison yard, two officers tackled the handcuffed Mcdaniel into a snow bank. A few hundred feet farther, another officer pushed Mcdaniel to the sidewalk. More than half a dozen officers looked on.
Mcdaniel collapsed to the ground another 10 times before reaching the medical clinic. His exam lasted slightly more than a minute.
While being taken to restricted housing, Mcdaniel collapsed again just inside the clinic doors and again outside the clinic doors. CPR was started but Mcdaniel died.
“My brother was loved. That was not okay,” Jada Mcdaniel noted, saying her brother struggled with drug addiction and wasn't a violent criminal.
The Franklin County Coroner determined the manner of death was homicide and ruled the cause of death was “stress induced sudden cardiac death.” The autopsy details blunt force injuries to his head, face, shoulders, wrists, hands, knees, feet, toes and abdomen.
Ohio DRC fired seven employees involved. Lt. Bruce Brown, nurse Jamie Dukes, and guards Heath Causey, Jerry Perkins, Joey Lemaster, Kristy Judd and Sarah Cline were dismissed.
Personnel records show three of the staffers were previously disciplined.
Brown, who was the supervisor on scene in the Mcdaniel case, was disciplined in Oct. 2017 for failing to properly oversee staff during a use of force incident and failing to make sure the inmate received proper medical care. Records also show Perkins was suspended in 2017 for excessive use of force and Causey was demoted for failing to take action when informed that an inmate was suicidal.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch and other organizations across Ohio.