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KTLA newsJailers Cleared of Abuse, Shocking Video Released
Three officers have been cleared of abusing female inmate
KTLA News
8:33 AM PDT, July 24, 2009
PEKIN, Ill --
The court case may be over, but the court of public opinion has yet to weigh in on the just-released surveillance tape showing three jailers restraining a female inmate.The Tazewell officers seemed to be quite forceful with an unarmed woman who was apparently taunting them from her cell. After months on paid administrative leave, the officers are all set to return to duty immediately.
http://www.pjstar.com/opinions/x2047450478/Our-View-No-excuse-for-Tazewell-jail-brutalityOur View: No excuse for Tazewell jail brutality
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Journal Star
Posted Jul 24, 2009 @ 10:30 PM
What in the world does it take to get fired as an employee of Tazewell County?
It's a fair question after viewing the videotape of two Tazewell jailers beating up a 40-something female arrested on DUI charges last October, and after reading of the Merit Commission's unanimous decision to let them get away with it without penalty.
The video is on the Journal Star's web site.
There you can watch two angry Tazewell correctional officers, Jeffrey Bieber and Justin Piro, roughing up Becky Behm - slamming her head against a concrete wall in the locked, segregated cell where she was being held; punching her, closed fist, in the face; pepper-spraying her; knocking her to the floor. This is what the Merit Commission concluded was "minimal force," in the words of one member, appropriate to the situation at hand.We couldn't disagree more, nor could Tazewell Sheriff Robert Huston, who rightly sought the dismissals of Bieber and Piro, as well as their supervisor, Sgt. Richard Johnston. The latter himself testified that he "cringed" while viewing the video, though when it mattered he apparently did nothing to intervene.
"The worst use of force ... we've had in my 10 years as sheriff," Huston characterized it, which is saying something in Tazewell. Arguably it's every bit as unsettling as what we saw with the "subduing" last year of a 33-year-old Peoria man by city police officers after he'd led them on a vehicle chase. Captured on tape by a squad car's dashboard camera, the incident resulted in the criminal indictment of three Peoria officers, now awaiting trial.
Yet the Tazewell Merit Commission - comprised of Chairman Gerald Wise, Lloyd Orrick, Harvey Richmond, Solie Myers and Donald Sharpe - unanimously reinstated the suspended officers with full back pay.
Read more:
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-jail-abuse,0,115025.htmlstory