By Adam Ferrise
cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Lorain man diagnosed with severe mental illnesses settled his case for a $500,000 judgment in his federal lawsuit accusing a former Lorain County corrections officer of beating him without provocation while he was awaiting transfer to a state psychiatric hospital.
The consent judgment, entered Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland, resolves Charles Koch’s claims against former Lorain County corrections officer Ruben Ortiz. Under the agreement, Koch must separately pursue payment through Lorain County’s insurer, the County Risk Sharing Authority.
Koch’s attorney, Dan Leffler, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The judgment stems from an August 2023 attack inside the Lorain County Jail that led to Ortiz’s firing, a criminal conviction and the federal civil rights lawsuit.
Koch, who had been found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 2021 assault case, was awaiting transport to Northcoast Behavioral Healthcare after a judge ordered him into treatment because he had stopped complying with his mental health plan.
Ortiz attacked Koch while Koch was partially restrained and posed no threat to officers.
The lawsuit said Ortiz threw Koch’s head into a brick wall, punched him repeatedly in the face, slammed his head onto a bench and tackled him to the ground. Ortiz continued punching Koch while he was on the floor.
Ortiz was fired in December 2023 and pleaded no contest in 2024 to assault and falsification.
It’s the second recent settlement struck over a beating in the Lorain County Jail. Another former inmate, Jeffrey Fry, settled his lawsuit against the county for $6.3 million. Fry accused a corrections officer of slamming him headfirst into a wall while his hands were cuffed behind his back.
—
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit cleveland.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.