CINCINNATI — A man who was allegedly hit with a belt by a Hamilton County corrections officer has filed a lawsuit against the county, the sheriff and at least 19 corrections officers in the jail.
Jordan Anderson, 26, is currently facing an assault charge for his alleged actions, according to court records.
Court documents say Anderson was on duty when he "removed his county-issued uniform belt" and hit the inmate, Chad Warren, twice in the lower back and buttock region.
Now, Warren has hired attorneys from Milberg and Radner Law Group and filed a civil lawsuit on Wednesday.
The lawsuit claims that on November 19, Warren had just returned to the Hamilton County Justice Center from court, and was getting dressed to go work in the kitchen; as Warren was walking down the hallway, one of the COs named in the lawsuit grabbed him by the shoulder and asked another officer "what he wanted to do with Chad."
Anderson then allegedly said "I got something for him" and hit Warren with the belt. The lawsuit claims that as Anderson hit Warren with the belt, the other corrections officers stood by, failed to intervene and laughed during the incident.
Warren was then allegedly not able to speak with a supervisor and, after several hours, submitted a grievance through the jail kiosk.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that on November 20, Warren was moved from the jail to a treatment facility. There, corrections officers tried to get Warren to "sign a paper stating he was safe around other deputies and inmates," the lawsuit says.
After Warren refused, the lawsuit says officers put him in protective custody and claimed they'd been told Warren was suicidal; the lawsuit claims this was retaliatory, because Warren would not sign.
The lawsuit also alleges Warren was denied medical attention for back pain, placed in a segregation cell instead of being taken to a court hearing and deprived of water entirely in his cell for two days.
"He had no water to drink, wash or flush the toilet" between 9 a.m. on Nov. 26 and 9:45 a.m. on Nov. 28, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also claims a correction officer never gave Warren his prescribed medications and took away his recreation hour.
On December 17, the lawsuit says as one correction officer was taking Warren to a court hearing, they told Warren they would "beat Chad's a** for my buddy Anderson."
On Dec. 19, a doctor told Warren he had a fractured spine that was either caused by the incident with Anderson, or exacerbated by it, according to the lawsuit. Two days after that, the lawsuit claims Warren's water was turned off again, until 9:52 a.m. the next day.
"The water shutoff also affected cell 10, causing that inmate to complain that he shouldn't be punished," reads the lawsuit.
We reached out to the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
McGuffey sent us the following statement in response:
“Regarding the investigation into the actions of now former deputy Jordan Anderson, as soon as we were made aware of the incident, and in accordance with the Sheriff’s Office transparency policy, we immediately released video and charged him with assault based on what we saw in the video. All of the facts surrounding this incident will be brought out in a court of law. Because this case is in litigation, the Sheriff’s Office cannot comment further at this time.”
