CLEVELAND — The woman who was restrained in a chair and pepper-sprayed by a guard in the Cuyahoga County Jail last July has filed a civil rights complaint against the county and the jail alleging that she was a victim of brutal and torturous acts.
The woman, Chantelle Glass, and her attorneys from The Chandra Law Firm LLC held a news conference about the incident. You can watch in the player above.
The incident happened on July 16, 2018 following Glass' arrest on a misdemeanor warrant out of New Jersey. She was taken into custody by Cleveland police after officers responded to her mother's house when her sister attempted to harm herself, the complaint states. While on scene, officers ran a warrant check and arrested Glass. She was transferred to the Cuyahoga County jail and the pepper spray incident was captured on jail surveillance cameras.
In the video, Glass can be seen sitting in a restraint chair. Glass, who started to flail about, was sprayed in the face by a guard using pepper spray just inches away from her eyes.
After being pepper sprayed, Glass told her jailers she couldn’t breathe—to which they responded, “If you talkin’ you can breathe,” according to the complaint. The complaint states that Glass suffers from asthma and jail staff “were in no hurry to employ decontamination protocols or ensure Ms. Glass had a medical assessment” following the incident. In the 13-minute plus body camera video, Glass tells officers she can't breathe about 30 times.
The below video is unedited body camera footage from after the pepper spray incident. WARNING: The video contains graphic content.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that corrections officers purposely withheld decontamination procedures to “prolong her agony.”
Two jailers involved in the event, Robert Marsh and Idris Farid Clark, were indicted in April 2019 and placed on unpaid administrative leave.
The Chandra Law Firm released the following edited video showing the aftermath of the pepper spray incident. WARNING: It contains graphic content.
RELATED: Video shows jailers hit, pepper spray restrained woman
