By Olivia Mitchell
cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A former Cuyahoga County corrections officer was sentenced Monday to six months behind bars after he admitted to helping a felon throw bodily fluids on jail supervisors.
Austin Casto, 26, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of attempted harassment with a bodily substance. Common Pleas Judge William Vodrey also fined Casto $2,000 and ordered him to serve the sentence in any county jail, except Cuyahoga, court records show.
The incident happened June 11. Authorities said Casto and convicted robber Romelle Smith threw fluids at five corrections officers and supervisors, including Kevin O’Donnell, the jail’s warden.
Casto was suspended without pay on the day of the incident. The following day, a grand jury indicted him and Smith. Deputies arrested Casto at his home in Parma.
Casto started work as a jail guard in February 2020. Part of his sentence includes he never seeks to gain employment as a corrections officer, according to court records.
8 ways to destroy your correctional officer career
Smith pleaded guilty to five counts of harassment by inmate, according to court records. He was given six more months in prison.
Smith had returned to Cuyahoga County for additional charges he picked up while imprisoned at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He was accused of drug trafficking and possession of drugs here. In that case, he pleaded guilty to the illegal conveyance of certain items, records show.
In November 2023, Smith, 23, of Euclid, pleaded guilty to six counts of robbery that stemmed from several bank robberies he committed in 2022, court records show. He was sentenced to 18 to 21 in prison. Other charges stemmed from him illegally possessing weapons as a felon.
Adam Chaloupka is an attorney with the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which represents jail guards. He said Casto pleading guilty to the charges was an acceptable resolution, but he disagreed with the six-month jail sentence.
“Such a sentence is extreme considering that I do not even remember the prosecution nor victims requesting a jail term during the hearing,” Chaloupka said.
He said two of the victims and Casto’s former supervisor spoke in support of him.
“It’s beyond disappointing to think that a correction officer’s inappropriate — but unfortunately quite common — conversation with an inmate could lead to six-months in jail,” Chaloupka said.
—
©2024 Advance Local Media LLC.
Visit cleveland.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.