Budd charged in beating

The No. 2 man in the sheriff's department was due in federal court today.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Maj. Michael Budd, second in command at the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department, has been indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with ordering corrections officers to beat a jail inmate.
Budd, 43, was arrested at his Boardman home just before 7 a.m. today without incident, said FBI Special Agent John Kane, head of the bureau's Boardman office. After processing at the FBI, Budd would be turned over to U.S. marshals and remain in custody pending an initial appearance in federal court today.
U.S. Attorney Greg White called Sheriff Randall A. Wellington at home this morning to inform him that Budd had been arrested, Kane said.
Wellington could not be reached to comment.
The case is being prosecuted by Steven M. Dettelbach, an assistant U.S. attorney.
Budd's indictment was expected to be unsealed after he appears in court. He has been with the sheriff's department since 1991.
Months of speculation
The civil rights charges against Budd end months of speculation as to the identity of the person referred to only as "senior management" in the July indictment of three current and three former corrections officers. Of those six, Bill DeLuca, a retired sergeant, pleaded guilty Sept. 22 and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.
DeLuca's decision to admit guilt closed the gap between Budd and the deputies who allegedly carried out the major's order, authorities said.
Also cooperating is Ronald Kaschak, 29, of Austintown, who resigned as a deputy in April after pleading guilty to his part in the beating and named names. The investigation began in the summer of 2003 when Kaschak applied to the Austintown Police Department and made allegations of inmate abuse during pre-employment tests.
The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells in Cleveland. A superseding indictment that adds more charges to four of the five remaining defendants was filed last Friday.
Here are the remaining defendants, all of whom are free on unsecured bonds: Deputy Raymond Hull III, 35, of Poland; Deputy John Rivera, 32, of Youngstown; Deputy Ryan C. Strange, 28, of Vienna; Mark Dixon, 31, of Youngstown, a former deputy also charged in an unrelated sex case; and Ronald Denson, 49, of Austintown, who retired as a corporal Sept. 20, 2003.
Hull, Rivera and Strange were placed on paid leave pending the outcome of the charges against them.
What indictment says
The indictment, handed up July 14, states that on Dec. 28, 2001, DeLuca, a sergeant at the time, "instructed deputies in the jail that, pursuant to instructions from senior management, they were to use force on Tawhon Easterly in order to punish him." DeLuca, 53, of Youngstown, retired July 17, 2002.
The government, in a press release in July, pointed out that Wellington was not the subject of any allegations.
The indictment states that a person known to the grand jury passed an order through supervisors in the jail that Easterly was to be put in the hospital as punishment for hitting a female guard. Budd is now identified as the one who allegedly gave the order.
Trial had been set for Sept. 13 for DeLuca and the five others charged with conspiracy to violate an inmate's civil rights. Judge Wells granted a motion to postpone the trial but no new date has been set.
meade@vindy.com