The State Torture of Hope Steffey...
Hope Steffey's near fatal journey into state depravity began on October 20, 2006, at approximately 7:54 p.m.
Hope had been assaulted by her cousin, Leann Preston near 1154 Weimer Dr., SE in Stark County, Ohio. Scott Preston, the brother of the assailant, reported the incident to the Stark County Sheriff's Department with a 9-1-1 call for help. Sheriffs deputy Richard T. Gurlea was dispatched to the scene of the assault.
Upon Gurlea's arrival, he questioned Hope, asking her for her identification. Hope complied, but mistakenly gave Gurlea her deceased sister's driver's license, which she had been keeping close to her as a personal memento and reminder of her sister. Hope immediately realized her mistake and asked deputy Gurlea to return her sister's license, but Gurlea refused. Hope explained to Gurlea that the identification was her deceased sister's license, not her own license, and she pleaded with Gurlea for the return of her sister's license. Gurlea still refused to return the sister's license. Hope then handed Gurlea her own license. Gurlea took Hope's license and ran a computer check on her.
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While Gurlea was running the computer check, Hope's cousin and friend, Trinette Zorger, who was present at the scene when Gurlea arrived, noticed a bald spot, about the size of a quarter, on Hope's head. The bald spot had been caused by Leanne during her assault on Hope. Trinette then reminded Gurlea that Hope was the victim of Leanne's assault. Despite having knowledge that Leanne had injured Hope, Gurlea did not call for medical assistance. Hope was visibly upset by Leanne's assault and Gurlea warned her to calm down. Hope told Gurlea she was angry and could exercise her freedom of speech and Trinette reminded Gurlea, that Hope had just been assaulted and that was the reason the Sheriff was called in the first place. Trinette explained to Gurlea that Hope had literally been knocked unconscious by Leanne and that Hope was acting uncharacteristically loud and angry.
Gurlea still refused to acknowledge Hope's injuries or call for medical help, despite being told that Hope had been victimized. Gurlea, ignored both Trinette and Hope and instructed Hope to stand by his cruiser. Hope kept trying to talk to Gurlea, but he told her to remain silent. Hope, once again tried to explain that she desperately wanted her deceased sister's license returned. Gurlea angrily responded by telling Hope to
"shut up about your dead sister." Hope then pointed her finger at Gurlea's shirt pocket, where he had put her sister's license, and said
, "She was here, she was someone". Without provocation, Gurlea exploded in rage, seized Hope and slammed her face down onto the hood of his cruiser cracking one of her teeth and bloodying her lip. He held her pinned against the cruiser with his pelvic area while mashing her face against the hood of the car and said,
"Are you going to stop?" Before Hope could speak, Gurlea twisted her arm high up behind her back, causing Hope excruciating pain. Gurlea then picked the 120 pound Hope Steffey up off the ground and slammed her face-first into the dirt road, smashing her nose, causing numerous bruises and abrasions. Gurlea then leapt into the air and landed on top of Hope's back with his body weight, pounding the air out of her lungs and stomach. With his knee in her back, Gurlea once again asked, "Are you going to stop?"Blood ran profusely from Hope’s nose, flowing down over her mouth and chin, dripping onto the dirt road. Hope laid face down in the road completely unable to move and unable to breathe. She was suffocating under Deputy Gurlea's weight. He was killing her, inducing coma and death. Hope's cousin Trinette saw the look on Hope's face, and she screamed at Gurlea,
"She can't breathe, let her go, you're hurting her!" Only then did Gurlea climb off of Hope. She had only taken a few shallow breaths of air when Gurlea yanked her up on her feet. The blood from Hope’s nose ran down her face and neck. Gurlea pulled her arms behind her back, put handcuffs on her, shoved her in the back of his patrol car and called for backup.
The bruised, injured, and bleeding, Hope Steffey, was carted off to the Stark County Sheriff's office and jail to answer questions. Upon her arrival at the jail, Gurlea left Hope in his cruiser for about five minutes while he spoke with another deputy.
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After the male deputies tired of torturing and molesting Hope, she was rolled onto her stomach and handcuffed. One foot was placed on top of the other and her legs were folded back painfully. Hope was then lifted and carried into another cell by male sheriffs deputies who tossed her nude body to the concrete floor like a sack of potatoes.
Hope was left alone by her tormentors scratched, covered with bruises and abrasions, injured and naked. She tried to cover her private parts with toilet paper to prevent male sheriffs deputies from seeing her when they peeped in the cell. Eventually, Hope was told by a guard that she was being charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. During her six hour imprisonment Hope was never given any medical care by the nurse at the jail. She was treated only with deliberate and dehumanizing indifference. Sheriffs deputies probably knew that Hope had been seriously injured during the assault by Gurlea, but it didn't matter to them. Hope was never allowed to make a phone call to a lawyer or a family member. To humiliate her, Hope was given only a sleeveless vest to wear when she was taken to booking. She was forced to remain naked from the waste down as she was paraded through a police station full of men.
Sheriff Tim Swanson Stark County Sheriff Tim Swanson, actually said the reason Hope Steffey´s clothes and panties were taken away and she was left naked without even a blanket to cover herself in a cold jail cell was for her own safety. Sheriff Swanson maintains that his deputies are not guilty of any wrongdoing and that their job is to protect prisoners in their custody. He says that his officers did everything by the book, but according to the Stark County Sheriffs department's own policy on strip searches-
"The officers conducting the search must be of the same sex as the prisoner". Greg Steffey agrees saying,
"It's common policy everywhere. It's just wrong that they do this to people. She called for help. She Asked them for help not for this." ...
Hope's injuries were sustained by her as a direct result of a policy, implemented, condoned, and promulgated by Stark County Sheriff Timothy A. Swanson. Swanson was deliberately indifferent in his failure to supervise, control, or discipline his subordinates. Swanson authorized, approved of and knowingly acquiesced in unconstitutional policies and conduct by Gurlea and the other deputies under his supervision. These actions and inactions were taken by Swanson and his subordinates under the color of law. These actions and failures to act deprived Hope of her rights secured by the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
What happened to Hope Steffey has happened to others living in states with strip search, cavity search laws like Ohio's. The use of nudity, humiliation, and torture, by United States law enforcement represents an overall breakdown in American morals, values, freedoms, Constitutional rights, and human rights. These flawed policies- bad laws, will continue to victimize Americans until they start writing to and calling their representatives in Washington and telling them to change these laws or get them off the books altogether.
