Deputy to be fired, sheriff says

The deputy, who faces 10 to 16 months in prison, will testify against others.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;By PATRICIA MEADE & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Deputy Sheriff Ronald J. Kaschak, who is using family leave to be with his wife and new baby, will be fired for taking part in the beating of an inmate, the sheriff says.
Kaschak, 29, of Austintown, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court, Cleveland, to depriving an inmate of his constitutional rights by aiding and abetting others in using excessive force. The deputy, hired in April 2000, pleaded to an information that had been placed under seal three weeks ago.
Kaschak's Boardman lawyer, Louis M. DeFabio, said his client reached a plea agreement with the government and will cooperate in its ongoing investigation of the sheriff's department.
"He's been very cooperative in trying to do what's right. He made a mistake," DeFabio said. "He's a wonderful kid with a new baby girl."
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the FBI investigated the case, and Steven M. Dettelbach and Kristy Parker, assistant U.S. attorneys, prosecuted.
To be sentenced in July
Judge Lesley Brooks Wells set sentencing for July 12. Kaschak is free on an unsecured bond.
DeFabio said Kaschak is likely facing a 10- to 16-month sentence, at least half of which must be spent in prison, with the balance in house arrest or a community-based halfway facility.
Sheriff Randall A. Wellington said Monday that Kaschak took family leave about two weeks ago. The sheriff said Kaschak will be fired after a predisciplinary hearing.
Wellington said he'd reserve further comment until he reviews the plea agreement.
The beating of inmate Tawhon Easterly came to light when Kaschak applied for a job at the Austintown Police Department last summer. During a series of pre-employment exams, which included voice-stress analysis, Kaschak made allegations of questionable use of force in the jail. The allegations were relayed to Wellington.
When questioned by The Vindicator last November, Wellington said Kaschak had been the "main thrust" of an internal affairs investigation that included a sergeant and three to four deputies, whom he refused to identify. He said Kaschak's allegation that Easterly had been roughed up in the jail was unfounded and no disciplinary action was taken.
The sheriff said Monday, however, that the internal investigation was never completed because the FBI took all the files.
Officers involved
Last August, the sheriff's department turned over to the FBI original personnel files, disciplinary records and training documents for Kaschak, Maj. Michael Budd, Sgt. William DeLuca, and deputies Ronald Denson, Mark Dixon, Lawrence Dolak, Angela Eaddy, Raymond Hull, Christina Kachaylo, Stanley Kosinski, John Rivera, Dave Thoreson and Jeff Tinkey.
Kaschak says that, had the case gone to trial, the government would have proved that Easterly, 25, of Youngstown, was beaten Dec. 28, 2001, by deputies after he struck Kachaylo. Later that same day, Kaschak, who was not involved in the first beating of Easterly, was directed by senior management and his supervisors to put Easterly in the hospital as further punishment.
Kaschak and at least three other detention officers beat Easterly, the government said. Although Kaschak did not strike as many blows as the others, he held the inmate down and delivered several blows to the inmate's lower body.
"After the second beating was over, other deputies dragged the inmate, stripped naked, through the disciplinary unit to his cell," the government said.
Easterly has been incarcerated at Trumbull Correctional Institution since July 2002, serving six years for involuntary manslaughter. In June 2002, he was convicted of assaulting Kachaylo.
Another case
The investigation of the sheriff's department includes allegations that Dixon's civil rights were violated. Dixon, 30, of Youngstown, was placed on leave in November 2002, after being accused of having sex with an inmate. His trial is pending in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.
A plea agreement fell through when assistant county prosecutors learned that they hadn't been given all of the investigative information from the sheriff's department. Budd was subsequently called to testify about the matter before a grand jury.
Dixon was removed from the sheriff's department's payroll a year ago, and his status is frozen pending outcome of the criminal charge.
& lt;a href=mailto:meade@vindy.com & gt;meade@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;