Remember Hope Steffy and Canton Ohio? It gets more absurd

(the "duh, I can get a woman if I jail em" sheriff with the "look how many allegations I got now ma" Attorney General )
And how she was forcibly strip searched by male deputies in Starke County, Ohio. We do because we wrote a letter to the States Attorney about it. See here posted on 2-4-08:

Open Letter To Ohio Govenor, AG, Sheriff on behalf of Hope Steffy

And then we find out Hope Steffy wasn't alone. Starke County law enforcement apparently enjoyed making teen girls strip down for "trespassing" which we wrote about here posted 2-5-08:

Could it be that there is a lot more going on in Canton Ohio than just Hope Steffy

Well we never heard anything back from our letters. But then what the hell, the only thing we ever get back from Florida Legislators is a generated thank you for writing note, if that.

But I am guessing the reason the Ohio Attorney General never wrote back was because he was busy. Busy doing what you may ask? Lets see,

An independent investigation into all the allegations swirling around Attorney General Marc Dann could begin next week. Republican leaders in the Legislature said Friday that they will pass a bill giving Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles the authority to investigate the attorney general'''s office. Democrats are backing the bill, and Gov. Ted Strickland said he will sign it. House Speaker Jon Husted and Senate President Bill Harris said they spoke with Charles and he indicated he is willing to conduct the probe. The House will approve the bill Tuesday, the Senate on Wednesday and Charles will get to work immediately, they said. In the wake of a sexual harassment investigation that saw three top aides lose their jobs, Dann admitted last week that he had an affair with an employee and mismanaged the office. Democrats and Republicans have called on Dan to step down or be impeached, but he refused, saying he has not committed any impeachable offenses. Husted and Harris said they were moved to act Friday by reports that an Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation employee erased computer data that was related to the investigation of Anthony Gutierrez, the attorney general'''s former general services director. Gutierrez was fired last week following an internal office investigation of sexual harassment charges that also accused him of running his private business, MTV Construction, on state time using state property.

Oh and of course there is more Here. And here. And obviously a lot of places cause he be a busy man.

And what about Sherrif Swanson whom The AG was supposed to investigate?
From Graphictruth
WKYC reports that since the release of the now-notorious Hope Steffey ’strip search’ video, 4 more Stark County, Ohio women, including Valentina Dyshko of North Canton, have come forward alleging that they were forced to remove their clothing when detained at the Stark County Jail...BL further reports in a subsequent article that the State Attorney General will be looking into the entire matter.

Larry Shields of the Salem News reports that Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson has officially requested that Ohio Attorney General Mark Dan “review all the circumstances surrounding the arrest and incarceration of Hope Steffey in October of 2006,” a vicious incident labelled “way out of line” by Cuyahoga county Sheriff Gerald McFaul (h/t ThePoliticalCat).

Additionally, Muriel Kane of The Raw Story reports that video footage taken prior to the now-infamous strip search tape may exist, noting that “jailhouse surveillance cameras show a deputy with a handheld camera filming Steffey being escorted to her cell.”

NOW THIS IS FREAKING FUNNY

HOW DOES THE GOOD SHERIFF SWANSON RESPOND????
he Wants to house out-of-county female inmates to avoid layoffs CANTON To prevent layoffs, Sheriff Tim Swanson wants to bring women prisoners from other counties and federal lockup to the Stark County Jail.

GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, he can't find enough victims on the streets. He has to import them.
AND get paid for them no less.

BUT NOW WE GO FROM FUNNY TO ABSURD!
 The Stark County Sheriff�s Office is proud to announce that Sheriff Tim Swanson has been elected as the President of the Buckeye State Sheriffs� Association for the year 2008.

DUDES AND DUDETTES, I am packing up my whips and chains and moving to OHIO, the land of whacko-tunity. But then were in Florida ain't we? Where we have police officers getting folk killed and jailers dumping folk out of wheelchairs.
See HERE!

Alas, should we be surprised. Oh course not. Like the weenie little wuses that we are we just throw our hands in the air and go oh golly gee that is so terrible, that should never be allowed to happen and then hide with a bag of chips and a beer in front of our 52 inch plasma T.V. watching American Idol (I wonder who goes tonight, rock dude is gonna win) or anything but the news. After all it's so disturbing. But we are safe now aren't we? Now that we have given up so much of our power that those whose job it is to protect us can abuse us with impunity! And where do YOU think it will end???

Thanks to the individual that tipped us off.Add to Technorati Favorites

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Posted by aka rc at Wednesday, May 14, 2008
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10 comments:

  1. well I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person on the planet that thinks the way American citizens are treated by the nazi ooops I mean police force in your own country is outrageous, how refreshing to see someone voicing views without fear, now all you got to do is bomb every police station and the pentagon, then you will all be free!
    ReplyDelete
  2. If we could just wake the rest of America up
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  3. I totally agree that police are given WAY too much leeway with how they treat citizens. I have seriously considered running for office to better police the police. They have too many apologists saying how tough their jobs are and are given a free pass in many incidents where they've overstepped their bounds!
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  4. I search up Hope Steffy every so often just to see what's happening. Glad that things got hot for the do nothing AG Dann but sooo suprised that the Sheriff in question got elected to ANYTHING! Keep writing about this as I'll continue to be curious until there is resolution.
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  5. Check out our posts on Rachel Hoffman.
    The Hope Steffy case is as egregious as it is is only one of many instances of abuse of police powers.

    And those are just the one that make the press. rc
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  6. Heres a Cut & Paste I have been spreading around to get more info out about the Hope Steffey case.

    This is the BCI report that Agent Christy S. Palmer sent to John D. Ferrero, Prosecuting Attorney Stark County Ohio.
    Dated April 16, 2008 BCI Case #: SI-76-08-14-0147

    This is part of page 3

    http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y39...BCI-Report.jpg

    Sheriff Swanson has ALWAYS maintained that Steffey was ASKED & REFUSED to remove her cloths.
    But here’s the BCI’s OWN REPORT that PROVES this is a LIE!

    But apparently catching the sheriff's dept in a lie isn't a big deal to our "independent" BCI investigator, Christy Palmer, who seems ready to accept ANY excuse the sheriff's dept wants to use.

    The report also goes on to say that they lowered Steffey in a slow controlled manner to the floor. Except that Steffey says she was thrown to the floor.
    She also told her husband in a phone call that she thought the cops had broken her nose.
    And she was treated by the nurse for the injury.
    And in page 4 of this report Christy Palmer even states that Steffey reported that her nose was making "crunching noises".

    So I guess this is proof of a second LIE!

    And still Christy Palmer, the "independent investigator" doesn’t think twice about accepting the word of the cops over the VICTIMS in spite of proof.
    BTW, Christy also references a video that she says “proves that she was lowered in a slow controlled manner to the floor”. As far as I know, THIS would have to be on the 'non-existent' beginning of the strip video.
    On May 5th when I asked about the "missing" video, I was told it would soon be released.
    Now here again it looks as though it’s referenced...even though they NOW claim it does not exist.
    Interesting. (I have filed a request for this video.)

    This isn’t so much an investigation report as it is a smear campaign against Hope Steffey.

    They are trying to say that Steffey was resisting enough that EIGHT people couldn't take the chance of ASKING her to remove her cloths, or EVEN TELL HER WHAT WAS GOING ON!!!
    What a crock!!

    I did NOT see any resisting in the video, I saw eight cops parading her to the cell, with her in cuffs.

    In fact EVERY video I have seen she is in cuffs!
    And the ONLY times I have seen her react to the cops is after they have assaulted her or in the process of stripping her naked.

    The cops can polish this turd as much as want, this STILL STINKS!

    BTW I don't know why they bothered to black out the names of Nurse Coren Lennon and the jail psychologist Thomas Anuszkiewicz, aren't they PROUD of the work they do?
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  7. UPDATE:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgmyQvB3XSQ

    Ok here’s a video you won't see on the news.

    Here’s the cops taking Steffey to the cell to strip her naked. This shows what was going on outside in the hallway.

    The quality of the video is pretty bad. It will seem to 'skip' frames for quite a while in some places, but then take a bunch in a row at other times. Why it does this, I don't know.
    All the cameras at the sheriff's dept seem to be in bad shape and "malfunction" right at critical moments.

    But as you can see after they video the cell being locked, they IMMEDIATLY open her cell again.
    (NO video of what was done then!)

    The rest all stand around and seem to have a good laugh.

    As you can see from the video the big guy in the white shirt, he stays at the door to the cell looking in all the time Steffey was being assaulted, and then he stays back around her cell afterwards, looking in....GEE, I wonder WHY?

    Then afterwards he's joined by another officer who didn't get a chance to help strip Steffey and he starts walking down to have a look too.

    WHY DON'T THEY JUST SELL TICKETS?!?!?!?

    BUT THEN the camera seems to malfunction, and the next thing you see is a empty hall. BUT only ONE second has passed on the time marks!
    WOW, .....MORE "missing" video from Stark County Sheriff's Dept.
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  8. I was always puzzled by the news saying that there was "confusion" when the cops arrived.

    I'm thinking what "confusion"?? They have everyone there saying that Steffey was the victim, even the cousin is saying it on video. Plus the brother of the attacker calls the cops on his own sister.

    Heck even the cop testifies that he went to his car to document Steffey's injuries...and the cops are on tape talking about Steffey's niece getting arrested the month before for another domestic battery charge.
    Plus Gurlea has everyone looking for Steffey’s missing hair, and Gurlea is on tape talking to Steffey as if he knows she is the victim, so WHY are the papers saying there was "confusion"!?!?

    Then I found out why...the cops tried to FRAME Steffey for the assault that she had reported!!

    Here’s PROOF the cops were actually trying to charge the VICTIM for the crime she was reporting!!

    http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/Zemo999/Incident-Report-Assault.jpg


    NONE of the papers have EVER reported that Steffey was actually arrested for assault too. But this incident report clearly shows the cops were trying their best to get her charged with the assault too.

    Its all an attempt to cover the cops abuse of Steffey, when witnesses said he exploded in a rage at her.
    They even went so far as to take ONLY TWO written witness statements, and they were from Steffey's attacker & her brother...(who she no doubt threatened into it, since she didn't know at that time he was the one to call the cops)...and she DID threaten the aunt that she thought had called them.

    The arresting cop, Richard T. Gurlea Jr., testified at Steffey's trial that the 'investigation' into the assault was never finished.

    REALLY?!!?
    Then how do you explain the assault charges against Steffey in the incident report they filled out???
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  9. The Hope Steffey Case
    I know you have seen some of this before, but the part I don't get is WHY all these people helped cover this up.

    A news paper deliberately wrote up a misleading article about this. They put stuff in the article that they KNEW were lies.
    An example is they put in that Swanson had claimed that Steffey had been given a chance to remove her clothes and had refused.
    This statement is TRUE, this IS what the sheriff claimed.
    BUT the BCI investigation was VERY clear that she had NOT been given a chance to remove her clothes, and they KNEW this. And I know they knew this because the author is the one that pointed me to the information!! And they acknowledged the source in the article.

    So they printed a LIE from the sheriff that they KNEW was a lie....WHY!??!? Does the sheriff and his gang have that much influence?

    Also the BCI investigation was a joke, so information they gave to the grand jury would have been the same.
    It wasn't so much an investigation, as it was a smear campaign against Hope Steffey.
    But WHY did the BCI also cover for these criminals?

    And it looks as though the FBI "investigation" is going the same way. But WHY?!?!?

    A couple of other things NEVER reported in the news is that Steffey's assailant was arrested the month before, for another assault. And the cops knew this, because they are on tape discussing it.
    And another thing never reported in ANY news source is that Steffey was not just arrested for disorderly conduct & resisting, but also for the assault that she had reported!!
    But yet Richard T. Gurlea Jr., testified at Steffey's trial, under oath, that the 'investigation' into the assault was never finished.
    REALLY?!!? Then how do you explain the assault charges against Steffey???

    BTW his excuse for not finishing the investigation was that Steffey was in no shape to help with the investigation.
    So are we left to assume that any crime victims that are unconscious or dead have NO chance of having their cases investigated by the Stark County Sheriff's Dept?? (All their excuses are just as pathetic & lame as this one, or even worse.)

    But the point is WHY was there no news source that made any of this public??
    Even the original TV WKYC report never even made mention of this.
    How can you skip over info that shows the cops were trying to frame the crime victim?!?!?

    Makes me question every newspaper article....how many others leave out facts that they KNOW are out there, and would change the whole look of the case, but are never made public??
    And HOW did we ever get to this point, that this could happen in our country?
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  10. Deputies drop suit vs. WKYC over Hope Steffey report

    Just as I have said all along this would NEVER get to a trial. There is just no way for the cops to justify what was done to Steffey.

    http://www.cantonrep.com/news/crime/x1631834888/Lawsuit-against-WKYC-dropped
    ReplyDelete

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