SHERIFF'S OFFICE Ex-sergeant to plead in rights case

Five others remain under indictment; no new trial date has been set.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Bill DeLuca was scheduled to plead guilty today to a civil rights violation -- admitting that he passed on an order from "senior management" at the Mahoning County jail to beat an inmate and drag him naked to his cell.
DeLuca, a retired Mahoning County Sheriff's Department sergeant, and his Boardman attorney, Robert J. Rohrbaugh II, were due in U.S. District Court this morning for a change-of-plea hearing. Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert was to accept the plea in Youngstown's federal court on behalf of U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells, who presides in Cleveland.
Trial had been set for Sept. 13 for DeLuca and 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 for the remaining corrections officers -- two former and three current.
Rohrbaugh said Wednesday that his client reached a plea agreement and will be available to assist the government in its prosecution.
"I can't comment," the lawyer said when asked about the unidentified person listed in the indictment as senior management.
Other defendants
The remaining defendants, all of whom are free on unsecured bonds, are:
* 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.
* 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.
Rohrbaugh said DeLuca, "after considering the case, the potential penalty and some of the allegations, felt it was in his best interest to enter into a plea." The lawyer didn't want to speculate on how much time DeLuca will receive when sentenced.
Allegations
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, pointed out that Sheriff Randall A. 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.
Judge Wells has the companion case of Ronald Kaschak, 29, of Austintown, who resigned as a deputy after pleading guilty in April to his part in the Easterly beating.
Kaschak is cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Easterly's beating came to light when Kaschak applied for a job at the Austintown Police Department last summer. During a series of pre-employment exams he made allegations of questionable use of force in the jail.
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 the female deputy six months earlier in the jail.
meade@vindy.com