CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County has agreed to pay $140,000 to a man who said corrections officers beat him for no reason and later intimidated him for speaking with the U.S. Marshals Service during its investigation into problems within the jail.
Corrionne Lawrence, 25, and his lawyers reached the settlement Thursday during negotiations facilitated by U.S. District Judge James Gwin, Lawrence’s attorney Ashlie Sletvold said. The settlement is subject to County Council approval.
Thursday’s settlement was reached in the wake of problems within the jail made public in November 2018 in a marshals’ report that highlighted systemic issues with the treatment of inmates.
County officials denied the allegations in the lawsuit. However, the jail has been under increased scrutiny in recent years, following a string of deaths and incidents where inmates said guards used excessive force.
The jail is the subject of an FBI civil rights investigation and an Ohio Attorney General’s Office criminal probe that has yielded 11 indictments, four convictions and an acquittal. State inspectors noted in a report this month that conditions in the jail have improved greatly since last year.
“Mr. Lawrence is pleased that the county is taking steps toward resolving the incidents against him in a way that befits their seriousness,” Sletvold said in a news release. “He hopes that this resolution is the first step in resolving the County jail’s ongoing human-rights crisis.”
Eliza Wing, a spokeswoman for County Executive Armond Budish, said she could not comment because the council had not yet approved the settlement.
Lawrence, 25, is now at a prison in Mansfield, serving a three-year sentence for weapons and other charges. He named Cpl. Christopher Little; officers Brandon Smith, Barry Hickerson and Beverly Witt; and the county itself as defendants in the lawsuit. He accused the county of failing to oversee the jail, and the officers of physically and psychologically abusing Lawrence.
His lawsuit said jail staff placed him in a restraint chair for hours to punish him for speaking Spanish. It also said corrections officers placed him in a pod with an inmate charged with killing Lawrence’s cousin, and allowed the fellow inmate to attack him.
Members of the jail’s Special Response Team, known as the “Men in Black,” also beat Lawrence bloody in an elevator, and he endured several threats before and after speaking with the marshals according to the lawsuit. In one instance, a corrections officer threatened to kill him and make it look like a suicide, Lawrence said.
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