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Former Cuyahoga County Jail Guard Sentenced To Jail For Role In 2018 Death

The jail in Downtown Cleveland has been the site of several protests and the source of lawsuits and indictments since in the last three years. [Matthew Richmond / ideastream]
cuyahoga county jail

Former Cuyahoga County Jail guard Martin Devring will spend 30 days in jail himself for failing to get medical attention for an inmate who eventually died and falsifying records afterwards.

According to the indictment from the August 2018 incident in filed in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, inmate Joseph Arquillo was doubled over on a mat on the jail floor while Devring was responsible for inmates in that part of the jail.

Video footage captured Devring walking over, jabbing at the mat with his foot and leaving Arquillo there.

Arquillo would later die at the hospital after the next guard on duty called paramedics.

Devring also falsified records about the rounds he made while on duty that day.

Devring pleaded guilty in February to charges of dereliction of duty and tampering with records. Prosecutors dropped a charge of interfering with civil rights and he faced up to 90 days in jail. In exchange, Devring agreed to not seek back pay or attempt to get reinstated as a corrections officer.

Devring was one of five Cuyahoga County jail corrections officers indicted in April 2019, in the aftermath of a scathing U.S. Marshals Service report on conditions in the facility. Two other corrections officers, Nicholas Evans and Timothy Dugan, were accused of strapping inmate Terrance Debose into a restraint chair, punching him, and leaving him in the chair for two hours without medical assistance.

Evans and Dugan both pleaded guilty in 2020. Evans was sentenced to nine months in jail. Dugan received a 10-day sentence.

Idris-Farid Clark and Robert Marsh were the two other officers named in the 2019 indictment. Clark was accused of pepper spraying Chantelle Glass while she was restrained in a chair and Marsh of striking Glass in the head before Clark sprayed her.

Both corrections officers also pleaded guilty, with Clark receiving an 18-month sentence and Marsh a 30-day sentence.

Former jail administrator Ken Mills was charged separately with falsifying records and dereliction of duty for his role in overseeing conduct at the jail. His trial is scheduled for August.

Matthew Richmond is a reporter/producer focused on criminal justice issues at Ideastream Public Media.