Veteran Trumbull jail corrections officer charged with conducting illegal body-cavity search on inmate
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A 16-year veteran corrections officer at the Trumbull County jail has been placed on paid administrative leave and charged criminally with conducting an illegal body-cavity search on a female inmate.
Sheila Cullins, 49, of Main Avenue Southwest in Warren, was booked into the jail Tuesday morning and released on a summons requiring her to appear for court.
Warren Municipal Court records do not indicate when she will appear for her arraignment.
She is charged with the first-degree misdemeanor for purportedly doing the search on a 35-year-old woman who had been brought to the jail Aug. 8.
The search took place in the medical-examination room at the jail and was witnessed by a jail medical assistant and a fellow corrections officer.
The inmate filed a complaint, and the two jail personnel reported the matter to supervisors, said Maj. Thomas Stewart with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office.
Officers with the Trumbull County Adult Probation Department brought the woman to the Trumbull County jail from a rehabilitation center in Cleveland for purportedly violating the terms of her probation, Stewart said.
The probation officers wanted the woman strip-searched for contraband, but Ohio law prevents a corrections officer from conducting a body-cavity search, Stewart said.
A doctor or nurse can conduct a body-cavity search, but only after authorities obtain a search warrant, Stewart said.
A corrections officer can observe such a search but cannot conduct one, he added. A corrections officer also can conduct a strip search, but this search “went too far,” Stewart said.
The search in question did not involve “hands on,” but Cullins “did observe some things” that made her actions a criminal offense, Stewart said.
Stewart, who conducted the criminal investigation and is also conducting the internal investigation, filed the criminal charge Aug. 14.
Typically, once administrative charges are filed, an employee is then placed on unpaid leave, Stewart said.