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Cuyahoga County Settles 2019 Federal Lawsuit Over Jail Beating

A 2020 protest outside the Justice Center in Cleveland called for improvements in conditions inside the Cuyahoga County jail. [Matthew Richmond / ideastream]
rally outside the justice center in downtown cleveland

A Cleveland man who was seriously injured by corrections officers while being held at the Cuyahoga County jail in 2018 will get a $170,000 settlement after a unanimous vote of approval by Cuyahoga County Council Tuesday.

In a lawsuit filed in 2019, Cortez Tyree accused eight corrections officers at the Cuyahoga County Jail of violating his civil rights by using excessive force.

According to the complaint, filed on July 7, 2018 in federal court in Cleveland, Tyree was talking on the phone with his wife in the jail’s housing area. Corrections Officer Raymond Baker told Tyree to get off the phone and when Tyree refused, Baker called in the Special Response Team, also known as the “men in black.”

Five unnamed SRT officers and two additional corrections officers named in the suit – Jermaine Clements and Kendale Dunn – kicked, punched and pepper sprayed Tyree before restraining him in a chair.

He was briefly taken to the medical unit before being put on an elevator, where a second beating occurred.

Two days later, Tyree was taken to MetroHealth Hospital with a broken jaw and burst ear drum.

Attorneys for the officers and county denied Tyree’s allegations of mistreatment. County council members discussed the lawsuit and proposed settlement during a closed session Tuesday before moving into open session for the vote to approve it.

The SRT played a prominent role in a 2018 U.S. Marshals Service report on conditions in the jail, which noted that the unit’s members threatened people who spoke to investigators working on the report. Tyree’s lawsuit alleges Baker threatened him in order to keep him from talking about the beatings and lack of medical treatment.

No criminal charges have been filed against the three officers named in the lawsuit. In 2019, five officers were indicted by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, in the aftermath of a series of deaths at the jail and the U.S. Marshals reprt. All five received jail sentences after pleading guilty.

Matthew Richmond is a reporter/producer focused on criminal justice issues at Ideastream Public Media.