Lawsuit: Hamilton County jail nurse said 'I hope he's not dead'

A 61-year-old man was thrown “headfirst into a cinder block wall” at the Hamilton County jail by a corrections officer last year, leaving him with a head injury and broken hip, a federal lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says Mark Myers posed no threat to the corrections officer, Jason Mize. After Myers hit the structure inside the isolation cell, he fell to the floor and lay unmoving, bleeding from his head. Surveillance video showed Mize slam the door shut, leaving Myers alone.

Mize shoved Myers “with such force that (he) left his feet” before colliding with the structure, the lawsuit says. The Aug. 20, 2016 incident was captured on jail surveillance video.

“The interaction was so violent that the nurse exclaimed to a co-worker, ‘I hope he’s not dead,’” according to the complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

The broken hip suffered by Myers required surgery, documents say.

Mize had previously been disciplined at least three times for using excessive force, the lawsuit says. He has resigned from his job with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

The lawsuit says Mize lied to his superiors in an attempt to hide what happened. An internal investigation concluded, it says, Mize violated “standards which rise to the level of dishonesty and excessive force.”

A spokesman for the agency, Mike Robison, did not return messages seeking comment.

Myers was arrested after court documents say he walked out of the Home Depot in Columbia Township without paying for $120 in lighting and electrical equipment. The lawsuit says there had been a computer error related to an online payment Myers had already made for the items. 

Authorities arrested him the next day at his home in Silverton.

When Myers arrived at the jail, he was taken to the nurse’s station, as part of routine intake procedure. Records say he was “emotionally upset, belligerent and wanted to use the phone.”

But according to the lawsuit, Myers was cooperative with the nurse, although he asked for his cell phone, so he could call his family. Mize overheard Myers’ requests “and became inexplicably angered.”

Mize then ordered Myers out of the chair and forced him into the cell.

Myers’ attorney Paul Laufman said in a statement that Mize’s supervisor initially determined that the use of force complied with departmental policies. The matter was reviewed by others in the chain of command who requested an internal affairs investigation.

In the internal affairs report, according to Laufman, Maj. Charmaine McGuffey is quoted as saying, “Mize should be arrested or fired for his actions.”

The report concluded that Mize “violated our standards which rise to the level of dishonesty and excessive force, along with other internal violations, and disciplinary action is required.” 

Myers was eventually found not guilty of the misdemeanor theft charge, records show.