Tazewell County Justice Center getting bad attention

Police have a certain protocol they follow in using force. If a person resists arrest or hits an officer, police are justified in using only the necessary force to get the person under control. Any abuse of this power leads one to believe an officer is out of control or even enjoys inflicting pain upon another person. If this is the case, the officer should resign.

The recent events at the Tazewell County Justice Center, in which Becky Behm, a woman in her 40s jailed on suspicion of drunk driving, are contemptible.
It is inexcusable that the officers who abused this defenseless woman got off with a slap on the wrist.

The Tazewell Merit Commission did not think that correctional officers Jeffrey Bieber and Justin Piro deserved any type of punishment, even though Tazewell County Sheriff Robert Huston said the brutality was the worst he has seen in his 10 years as sheriff. Sgt. Richard Johnston, the supervising officer the night of Oct. 17, 2008, said he cringed when he saw the video of correctional officers abusing Behm in her cell.

This commission — comprised of chairman Gerald Wise, Solie Myers, Lloyd Orrick, Harvey Richmond and Donald Sharpe — needs some new members. They are sending the wrong message to other correctional officers. This message can be a dangerous and costly one because it only encourages more bad behavior. Perhaps next time, someone will be hurt worse and the county will be sued again.

In the half-hour video, Behm is seen in an isolated, padded jail cell. She repeatedly goes to the door, pushes on what looks like a buzzer and pounds on the door (there is no audio). After officers come to talk to her, she does so again. Her annoying behavior is met with violence. One correctional officer enters the cell and pushes her to the floor. She is also slammed against a wall face first, punched in the face and pepper sprayed in the eyes later.

There is no doubt that Behm’s behavior was annoying, but it is quite evident in viewing this video that Behm does nothing to provoke the use of force. She is not combative. She is simply standing there with her arms at her sides while officers point their finger in her face, hit, grab and slam her. Even after Behm was pepper sprayed in the face, she continued to knock on the door. She obviously was not in her right mind.

However, this does not excuse the way the officers handled the situation. Surely, officers are not allowed to use excessive force just because someone is annoying. Wearing a badge or being in a position of authority does not give them the right to beat people. And, surely, Bieber and Piro have encountered obnoxious people before and will again.

One way the officers could have handled the situation is to simply ignore Behm. Parents are told to do this with a child throwing a tantrum. Eventually, she probably would have fallen asleep.
Or, perhaps a nurse could have given her a sedative to calm her down. If she was keeping all the other inmates awake by pounding on the door, correctional officers could have restrained Behm in another way. While this would have been uncomfortable, it is better than being punched in the face.

The Tazewell County Justice Center has been in the news a lot lately, and the stories are not flattering. There have been other reported cases of abuse, which resulted in lawsuits.
In one, Charles L. Chandler, 24, of Washington, filed a federal suit in 2007 and was awarded $440,000. Chandler claimed officers beat him while he was handcuffed in jail.

In another lawsuit, former inmate Kody Leuallen sued and was awarded $100,000 from the county because she said Timothy Gregory, a former jailer, made her perform oral sex on him twice in 2005.

These instances, and the way most of them  are handled, are sending a negative message to the community. One twisted positive view is that perhaps arrests will drop in Tazewell County because people will fear going to the Justice Center.

Huston’s actions are very commendable for wanting discipline to be handed down to the correctional officers and the supervisor on duty for the Behm incident.

Initially, the correctional officers were suspended without pay. The Merit Commission ruled unanimously to reinstate the pair with full back pay. This must have been a “slap in the face” for Huston.

Huston is planning to appeal this case. Hopefully, there is a different outcome.