Fifth Licking County Justice Center officer resigns

• Five officers have resigned from the jail after an investigation into poor work performance.
• The investigation began as a result of officers looking into the suicide of an inmate in May.

NEWARK – A fifth corrections officer at the Licking County Justice Center has resigned after an investigation into work performance and the recording of inaccurate information in jail logs, Sheriff Randy Thorp said Friday.

Toby Berry, Jeremiah Moore, Eric Finley and Aubrey Biller tendered their resignations within the last week, according to the sheriff's office, and Tamra Leonard resigned Friday.

The resignations came after an investigation into corrections officers failing to complete rounds and recording inaccurate information in jail logs related to those rounds.

On Wednesday night, the Advocate was the first to report multiple employees had resigned after an investigation at the jail. The Advocate also filed a public records request Wednesday for the personnel records of employees who left the department since the beginning of the year.

Berry was the most veteran of the first four employees who resigned, having been hired in November 2012. Leonard joined the sheriff's office in 2002.

The four had been with the Licking County Sheriff's Office for less than two years; Moore had been with the department for less than six months.

Thorp said the investigation began in the course of looking into the circumstances surrounding the suicide of inmate Stanton Deeley in May. Berry had checked on Deeley before he was found in his cell, but Thorp said another officer had checked on Deeley after Berry, and Deeley appeared fine.

Deeley was found unresponsive in his bed when officers went to get him for his court appearance around 7:30 a.m.

In the course of the investigation, officers looked at Berry's rounds conducted during the first half of his double shift and noticed some irregularities, Thorp said.

"(Berry) didn't perform duties relative to policy," he said.

Thorp said Berry provided the investigating officers with names of other corrections officers who had conducted their rounds similarly in the past.

"He provided names, we interviewed those folks, we found deficiencies in their performance," Thorp said. "We were made aware of it and we took care of it."

Thorp said one of the most important duties of the corrections officers at the jail is to check on the welfare of the inmates for the safety of the inmates and the officers.

"To do it in an inconsistent manner or manner less than our expectations is totally unacceptable," he said. "We take that stand now and we will take that stand in the future."

The sheriff's office is facing a $10 million federal lawsuit from the family of a man who committed suicide in the jail in 2011. The lawsuit alleges William Overbey was classified as being on suicide watch and was not placed in an isolation cell or in a cell on the ground level of the module he was housed in.

Overbey jumped from a railing from an upper tier of his module. The lawsuit also alleges the corrections officer who was monitoring the module was not completing checks as required and did not take the proper precautions to get Overbey off the railing before he jumped.

A status conference is scheduled in the case for August.