Photo: Facebook
One guard bragged about the incident.
By Sydney Taylor — Written on Nov 10, 2021
On April 2, 2020 Seth Fletcher — who was serving a two year sentence at Chillicothe Correctional Institution — was tackled and knocked to the ground on his face by guards.
Fletcher had been sentenced in Fulton County for recording sexually-oriented material with his girlfriend, who was a couple years younger than the 18-year-old Fletcher.
Fletcher had told the guards he could not feel or move his legs, however the guards continued to drop him several times.
When he couldn’t get a drink of water the guards poured water into his mouth and up his nose, according to the Ohio Highway Patrol report.
Seth Fletcher is now paralyzed from the waist down.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction released a 239-page internal investigation that detailed the events in response to a public records request by USA Today.
According to the records, during a strip search the guards found Fletcher with a cigarette they believed had been laced with drugs. They handcuffed him and took him to the medical clinic at around 6pm.
When Fletcher was being escorted to the segregated housing unit, Corrections Officer Christopher Coy said Fletcher tried to pull away from him.
Coy then tackled Fletcher, who was handcuffed to the ground.
When Fletcher had told the guards he couldn’t feel his legs and his neck hurt, he was carried back to the clinic by his arms and legs. However, Nurse Krista Wooten patted his back and neck and said Fletcher was okay to be taken to the segregation unit.
He was then carried, handcuffed through the yard where he was dropped several times and had to use a backboard.
Other guards also dropped him on his face again before putting Fletcher on a bed where he said, “I can’t move, where am I at?”
Acting Capt. Ta-Rance White checked on Fletcher at 2:22 a.m., when Fletcher told him he couldn't move. But White didn’t get any medical help.
Medical help was not given to Fletcher until psychologist Eric Anderson visited him at 9:49 a.m. Fletcher underwent emergency spinal surgery at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
Fletcher now has quadriplegia and is in a wheelchair.
Fletcher filed a federal civil rights case against two dozen prison security and nursing staff members on April 15, 2020.
Police joked about injuring Fletcher.
Text messages where Correction Officer Garrett Osbon was bragging about the event were obtained from the lawsuit.
In messages on Facebook he wrote, “we also waterboarded him LMAO" and "I broke a dude's nose today, yeah this was not reported, there was way too much blood so I mopped it up."
Osbon also then went on to discuss he was proud it left Fletcher paralyzed.
"The dude I broke his nose is now paralyzed with a broken neck, and they say his face looks like he had been dropped and dragged through concrete, LMAO" Obson said.
"It feels good to know that I played a small part in paralyzing a cho, LMAO."
“Cho” or “Chomo” is prison slang for a child molester, which inmates and officers claim are usually at the bottom of the prison hierarchy.
A year after Fletcher was initially injured the state prison fired three people and gave a one-day working suspension to two staff members who were involved. Osbon and others resigned before the investigation concluded.
Sydney Taylor is a writer who focuses on News and Entertainment topics.