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Cuyahoga County corrections officer pleads guilty for assaulting restrained inmate with pepper spray

Sentencing for Idris-Farid Clark has been scheduled for February 27.

CLEVELAND — A Cuyahoga County corrections officer has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his role in the 2018 assault of a restrained inmate. 

Idris-Farid Clark pleaded guilty on Friday to attempted felonious assault, extortion, and unlawful restraint. Sentencing has been scheduled for February 27. 

Video showed Clark grabbing an inmate’s hair and administering a 6-second blast of pepper foam to the inmate’s face at point-blank range in July of 2018. In April of 2019, Clark and fellow corrections officer Robert Marsh were charged for the incident. 

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In the video, investigators say you can see Marsh wheel in the restraint chair as Clark shakes a can of pepper spray. Later, Glass is escorted by a corrections officer to the restraint chair in handcuffs. Next, Marsh is seen tying Glass to the restraint chair before another corrections officer tilts the chair back, which led Glass’ leg to go in the air nearly kicking Marsh. Marsh responded by punching Glass in the face. Subsequently, Clark pepper sprayed Glass directly in her eyes.

Three months later, the woman who was seen in the controversial video inside the Cuyahoga County Jail, Chantelle Glass, filed a civil-rights complaint against both Clark and Marsh. 

The suit alleges claims for excessive force, First Amendment retaliation, assault, battery, failure to train and supervise employees and related state-law claims including civil liability.

On Friday, the attorney for Glass, Ashlie Case Sletvold of The Chandra Law Firm LLC, gave the following statement after the Clark guilty plea. 

“Today was an important first step in Mr. Clark finally accepting responsibility for the violence he inflicted on Ms. Glass. But the greater responsibility lies with Cuyahoga County, which allowed a culture of punitive violence to flourish at the county jail. Ms. Glass will continue her efforts to hold everyone responsible to account for their roles in the torture she endured. She’s disappointed that thus far County Executive Budish and Prosecutor O’Malley have ignored her repeated requests to various county representatives to resolve her civil claims over an incident captured on video.”

RELATED: Woman sues for ‘torturous attack' involving corrections officers at Cuyahoga County Jail

Clark was arrested for extortion and intimidation in August of 2019 for claiming he would release incriminating videos of a co-worker unless that co-worker agreed to testify in support of Clark’s defense. 

Clark stated to the officer, "I'm not gonna burn for no one. If I go down, others are going down too."

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