Jury still undecided on Budd trial verdict

The last of seven current or former corrections officers pleaded guilty.
CLEVELAND -- Jury deliberations in the inmate abuse trial of Mahoning County Deputy Sheriff Michael Budd entered their sixth day today -- one day more than it took for the trial.
The trial that began Feb. 14 in federal court concluded evidence on Feb. 17. Trial was suspended Feb. 18 and 21. Closing arguments were heard Feb. 22, and jury deliberations began that afternoon.
Budd's defense team, Youngstown attorney Martin E. Yavorcik and Poland attorney Sebastian Rucci, felt sure a decision -- even if the decision was a hung jury -- would come Monday. They thought so last Friday, too, especially when jurors advised U.S. District Judge Lesley Brooks Wells that they were at a stalemate on all four counts.
The judge, as she had once before, urged the panel Friday to try to reach a unanimous decision. They left for the weekend still undecided.
Monday, the jurors -- seven women and five men -- had no questions for the judge. They deliberated from 9 to 11:45 a.m., took an hour for lunch, and then left at 4:20 p.m., saying they'd be back today at 9 a.m.
Budd, 44, of Boardman, is the one-time major who the government said gave the order to beat inmate Tawhon Easterly for a second time after he punched a female guard in December 2001. Budd also is accused of covering up his alleged involvement in the Easterly beating and personally roughing up two other inmates.
Budd, when indicted in October 2004, was demoted to deputy and placed on paid leave.
Related trial
In a related matter, Mark Dixon, who had been scheduled for trial at 8 a.m. Monday, pleaded guilty to his part in the Easterly beating and faces up to 25 years in prison when sentenced May 17. He appeared in court at 9 a.m. with family members offering support from the gallery.
Dixon had been the lone remaining holdout in a case that began with six defendants indicted in July 2004. The 32-year-old Youngstown man is no longer a deputy, he was removed from the sheriff's department payroll in March 2003, when indicted on an unrelated charge of sexual battery that is still pending.
Dixon's codefendants, deputies Raymond Hull III, John Rivera and Ryan Strange, avoided trial by pleading guilty last week to beating Easterly as punishment. Retired jail supervisors Bill Deluca and Ronald Denson pleaded guilty to their part in November 2004.
The probe
The investigation began in late summer 2002, when then-Deputy Ronald J. Kaschak applied for a patrolman's position with Austintown police and disclosed that he had, at Budd's direction, used excessive force on Easterly. Kaschak was not indicted; he resigned and pleaded guilty to an information in April 2004 and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution.
Last Friday, Judge Wells denied Dixon's request to delay the trial because of a witness's health and also denied his desire to replace his Cleveland lawyer, Henry F. DeBaggis. The lawyer had urged his client to accept a plea deal.
Dixon pleaded guilty to:
UCount One: Conspiracy to deprive Easterly of his civil right to be free from the use of excessive force amounting to punishment in retaliation for the inmate punching a female guard.
UCount Two: Aiding and abetting and causing the beating of Easterly in the fourth-floor gym at the jail.
UCount Three: Aiding and abetting and causing the beating of Easterly in a secluded corridor at the jail. This second beating was ordered by Budd, the government said.
Easterly did not report the beatings and corrections officers made no reports of the events, the government said.
The cases were investigated by the FBI and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and were prosecuted by Steven. M. Dettelbach and Kristy Parker.
Easterly, 26, has been incarcerated at the Trumbull Correctional Institution since July 2002, serving six years for involuntary manslaughter.