By C1 Staff
CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ohio — A Crawford County Sheriff’s Office corrections officer has been cleared of an alleged inmate assault.
The Telegraph-Forum reports that an unnamed officer was accused by inmate Rodney Allen of placing his hands on the inmate’s throat and arms while incarcerated on a domestic violence charge.
Allen claims that he was standing in a doorway the officer was trying to get through, and that the officer moved him out of the way by putting his hands on the inmate’s arms and throat.
Seven other inmates who were present at the incident sided with the corrections officer, saying Allen had not been assaulted.
Both the county and another did their own independent investigations, and both came to the same conclusion – that the officer had not assaulted the inmate.
In a report of the incident, the officer states that the inmate was blocking his exit from the work-release room, causing the officer to have to physically move the inmate.
The officer said Allen grabbed his left arm and said “Don’t push me.” The officer said he then gave Allen to go to the booking room, which Allen did not respond to until the officer radioed for officers to come to the men’s dorm.
Allen was cited for violating rules and regulations of the jail by disrespecting an officer, interfering with security operations of the justice center and failure to comply with the orders of a corrections officer that resulted in him being on lockdown from Jan. 24 until he was released from jail on Jan. 30.
The accused officer has had incidents in the past, including being disciplined for incidents including insubordination, breach of security, failure to follow jail policy, failure to follow procedure, improper pat-down of an inmate and violation of code of ethics.
Allen had also accused the officer of causing his termination of employment at a factory in Columbus, but the employer stated that the inmate was terminated due to being late for work on several occasions prior to him being incarcerated.