Ohio jail had troubles before sheriff charged

TOLEDO (AP) — In a little over a year, a former guard at the county jail was convicted of beating up two inmates, and another was sentenced for trying to smuggle drugs into the lockup.

And two years ago, a state inspection of the jail found that overcrowding was creating miserable conditions.

This all came before charges were filed last week against the Lucas County sheriff, accusing him of making false statements to FBI agents who were investigating the beating death of a man at the jail in 2004.

Federal prosecutors said Sheriff James Telb was attempting to cover up the role his deputies are accused of playing in the death of a man who was beaten in jail.

Telb and three others were indicted on civil-rights violations relating to the 2004 death of Carleton Benton, an inmate who was being held on murder charges.

Prosecutors said a sheriff’s deputy assaulted and strangled Benton in his cell and that another deputy also hit the man. The two deputies made false reports, and Telb and a lieutenant concealed their knowledge of the case from federal authorities, prosecutors said.

Telb, who is in his seventh term as sheriff, and the others charged have denied any wrongdoing. “At no time was there any attempt, or any effort, to cover up anything,” Telb said Tuesday.

In recent years, the sheriff has had to defend operations at the jail and his deputies as problems mounted.

Among the troubles were a pair of embarrassing escapes.

In one case, a man waiting to be booked ran out through the front door a year ago. He was caught within minutes.

Another inmate used a guard’s keys that he had found on a desk to escape in 2006. The inmate took an elevator down to the jail’s basement and slipped out an unguarded door. He then robbed a bank before being caught.

Most recently, a former guard, Seth Bunke, was found guilty in October of assaulting two jail inmates in 2006 and 2007. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Two deputies who watched Bunke beat one man pleaded guilty in November to witness tampering, admitting that they both wrote false reports and prevented other witnesses from telling the truth.