The Hillsborough Co. Sheriff's Office held a press conference Tuesday regarding the deputy who was caught on video dumping a man in a wheelchair onto the ground.
Brian Sterner, a quadriplegic who can drive, was arrested on a traffic violation. After being booked into the Orient Road Jail last month, Deputy Charlette Jones questioned if Sterner was truly in need of a wheelchair. She walked behind him, took the handles on the back of the hospital-grade wheel chair and dumped it forward.
Sterner says he tried to roll as he was going down, but hit so hard he thought he had broken two ribs. Then, while he was on the floor, deputies frisked him and tried to get him back into the chair.
Sterner says he told them how to pick him up and put him back into the chair, but because he can’t feel anything from his breastbone down, he says he was injured and didn’t know it. Sterner thought he had broken two ribs, but jail x-rays showed that wasn't true.
Deputy Jones has been relieved of her duties without pay pending the outcome of an investigation. She has not officially been terminated.
Jones has been employed by the Hillsborough Co. Sheriff's Office since 1996.
Chief Deputy Joe Docobo watched the video for the first time during the report by Tampa Bay's 10 News and said he found himself in "disgust" and was "appalled at every level."
Docobo also announced that two corporals and a sergeant involved are now on administrative leave with pay, and the jail supervisor on duty did not have knowledge of the incident.
Sterner broke his neck almost 14 years ago.
The Hillsborough Sheriff's Office didn't know anything about the incident until we showed them their own tape. Now an investigation is underway.
According to the major who runs the Orient Road Jail, there is no incident report, because as far as they are concerned, they didn't have a problem with, or cause a problem to, an inmate in a wheelchair.
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