![Lawyers for the plaintiff say this still image from a corrections officer's body camera shows their client Chariell Glaze pepper sprayed as the officer grabs his collar. [The Chandra Law Firm LLC]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/fc26dc1/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1432x805+0+0/resize/840x472!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F11%2F27%2Fglaze1-plaintiffpeppersprayedasjailcorporalgripshiscollar.jpg)
Another former Cuyahoga County Jail inmate has filed a lawsuit alleging mistreatment, including being pepper sprayed.
The complaint filed Tuesday by Chariell Glaze alleges two guards pepper sprayed him and used “additional unnecessary and excessive force.”
Glaze’s attorney, Ashlie Case Sletvold with the Chandra Law Firm LLC, says the incident occurred shortly before Glaze’s scheduled release on Nov. 27, 2017, when the jail was on lockdown. Glaze was concerned the “red zone” status at the jail, which could last for as long as 23 hours, would interfere with his scheduled release. The complaint states Glaze asked corrections officer Masai Brown to call a corporal.
“And the corporal who responded simply escalated matters and employed pepper spray when it was completely unnecessary,” said Sletvold.
The complaint alleges then-Cpl. Damein Bodeker and officer Brown walked Glaze into a metal door when he was incapacitated from the pepper spray. It also includes screenshots of Facebook posts by corrections officers joking about using pepper spray on restrained inmates and children. Bodeker has since been promoted to sergeant.
This is the sixth jail-related lawsuit brought by the Chandra Law Firm this year and, Sletvold said, more are expected in the next month.
“We want to ensure that everyone who is housed at the county jail, for whatever reason, is treated with dignity, is treated as a human being, because that seems to be getting lost far too often,” she said.
Reports of prisoner mistreatment and poor sanitary conditions surfaced during a probe of the jail by the U.S. Marshals Service last year. The report detailed, among other problems, excessive use of force and “inhumane” conditions, such as limited access to medical care and food being withheld as punishment.
Since the release of the marshals’ report, prosecutors have charged the former jail director, former warden and several corrections officers with a laundry list of felonies and misdemeanors.
Cuyahoga County has not responded to a request for comment on the most recent lawsuit.
