Opinion ID: 2829693
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Facts Alleged in the Complaint

Text: Lucas County took Carlton Benton into custody in February 2004 as a pretrial detainee. In late May, Benton was taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Toledo, Ohio, where he received medical treatment for seizures. In preparing to transfer Benton back to the Lucas County jail from the hospital, Lucas County employees, including Officer Jay M. Schmeltz, disengaged Benton from various kinds of medical equipment and the restraints that bound him to the hospital bed. During this process, Benton resisted, and Lucas County employees sprayed him with chemicals and repeatedly struck his torso and upper body. Benton was subdued, placed in handcuffs, the handcuffs were secured to a belly chain, and he was placed in leg irons. He was then seated in a wheelchair, loaded into a van, and transported back to the Lucas County Jail without further incident. According to the operative complaint—the Second Amended Complaint—here is what happened next. Plaintiffs allege that Schmeltz was “frustrated, agitated, and angry” as a result of Nos. 14-3134/3136/3137 Coley, et al. v. Lucas Cnty., et al. Page 3 the altercation with Benton at the hospital. Upon arrival at the jail, Schmeltz lifted Benton from the wheelchair and escorted him through the jail’s booking area. In his shackled state, Benton could only “shuffle” with “short and unbalanced steps.” While in the booking area, Schmeltz, “with malice, and in bad faith, with the intention of causing harm and injury,” “shoved and struck” Benton from behind, “causing him to fall straight to the [cement] floor,” “striking his head on the wall” as he fell. Benton was powerless to break his fall. Sergeant John E. Gray and other officers in the booking area witnessed this event. Schmeltz then pulled Benton up from the floor and, with the help of Gray and others, escorted Benton to the second floor medical unit. Once inside a cell, Schmeltz, Gray, and other deputies placed Benton on a bed, handcuffed him to the bed, and attempted to remove his many restraints. During this process, Benton began to “squirm around, struggle, and moved his legs, making it more difficult to get a hold of him to remove the restraints.” Although he was moving, Benton was “restrained and not posing any threat” to anyone present. Allegedly “frustrated, agitated and angry” that it was difficult to remove handcuffs, belly chain and leg irons, Gray grasped Benton from behind and placed him in a chokehold. When Gray applied the chokehold, Benton stopped resisting and gasped for air, “making choking and other gurgling sounds.” Hearing the gurgling sounds, another officer told Gray to stop choking Benton, but Gray would not release the chokehold. A few seconds later, he went limp and became unconscious. Once Benton was unconscious, the officers removed his restraints. Gray then instructed the other officers to leave the cell. Benton lay “silent, motionless, [and] limp.” Although aware that Benton was unconscious, Gray knowingly and intentionally failed to inform any of the nurses or other medical personnel working just outside the medical cell that he had used a chokehold on Benton or that he was unconscious. Gray later admitted that he heard Benton gasping and gurgling and knew that he should have told medical personnel about what had occurred. Approximately ten minutes later, a Lucas County deputy on regular rounds entered Benton’s cell and discovered that he was unconscious and not breathing. County personnel then transported Benton by ambulance to St. Vincent’s Hospital. There he was pronounced brain dead on June 1, 2004 and removed from life support the following day. Nos. 14-3134/3136/3137 Coley, et al. v. Lucas Cnty., et al. Page 4 Gray and Schmeltz made false entries in official reports chronicling the incidents that related to Benton’s death, intentionally and knowingly failing to state that Schmeltz had shoved Benton to the cement floor of the jail or that Gray had choked Benton to a state of unconsciousness, leading to his death. Based on these falsifications, the Lucas County Coroner’s office initially declared Benton’s death to be the result of complications caused by seizures and thus “natural” causes. In 2008, approximately four years after Benton’s death in 2004, Plaintiffs first learned that he had died from injuries inflicted on him while in the custody of Lucas County. The FBI began an investigation into Benton’s death, during which Gray, Schmeltz, and Sheriff Telb made false statements to FBI agents to impede their investigation. Gray falsely stated that he observed Benton “breathing and moving after the chokehold.” Schmeltz denied to FBI agents that he saw Gray use a chokehold on Benton. Telb, who knew of all the events leading to Benton’s death, denied to FBI agents that Gray used a chokehold on Benton, and made false statements to federal authorities. During the course of the federal investigation, the coroner declared Benton’s death a homicide. Plaintiffs allege that the actions of Gray and Schmeltz in assaulting and strangling Benton were proximate causes of his death.