By Brian Bondus and Katie Wedell
Springfield News-Sun
CHAMPAIGN COUNTY, Ohio — The Tri-County Regional Jail is in the midst of a $216,000 upgrade to its video surveillance system, which currently includes only analog cameras and has been criticized for providing poor quality footage.
Hazy surveillance images became an issue this week in the sentencing of Zachary Butler in the death of fellow inmate David Piersol following an assault in April.
Butler was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for reckless homicide and tampering with evidence. He pleaded guilty to those charges in October.
But during the pre-sentence investigation, Butler claimed Piersol suffered a second assault at the hands of other inmates in the bathroom, which could have caused or aggravated his fatal head injury.
Champaign County Judge Nick Selvaggio dismissed that theory, citing a lack of evidence such as any discernible video.
“The video was of such poor quality, that nothing definitive could be made out,” said Butler’s lawyer Chris Bucci.
Trevor Baker, Butler’s bother, said he believed with better cameras that his brother might not be going to prison.
“The outcome would have been much different if they had video evidence,” Baker said.
Jails should have the most up-to-date surveillance systems in 2014, he said.
“To put them all in a building together to rehabilitate them, but not monitor them seems a little irresponsible to me,” Baker said.
Better video footage probably wouldn’t have made a difference in this case, Champaign County Prosecutor Kevin Talebi said, because there were consistent witness statements available, as well as Butler’s own admissions.
But he agreed that better cameras could help in future cases.
“The only thing the video evidence would have done in this case would be to eliminate the misinformation that’s out there,” Talebi said.
Camera upgrades were already in the works prior to the April incident, jail leaders said.
“We’ve known probably since the jail was built that they weren’t quite what they wanted,” said Champaign County Commissioner Bob Corbett, who serves on the jail’s board.
The jail will go from having about 40 analog cameras to more than 60 cameras, with a mixture of about 20 analog and 40 digital cameras.
The leftover analog cameras will only be used in small areas like entrance ways that don’t require as detailed of video.
“The picture quality of just about everything will go up,” said Scott Springhetti, jail executive director.
New details
Jail officials and Talebi discussed details of the case for the first time this week and released video from inside the jail.
A better timeline of events has now emerged:
8:21 p.m. April 4: Butler was booked into the jail pending charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and resisting arrest. He was so intoxicated, according to his lawyer, that jail staff had to remind him where he was. He refused a breath test during his arrest three hours earlier, so his actual intoxication level is unknown and Springhetti said the staff would have isolated him if he’d been too drunk to enter the general population.
1:38 a.m. April 5: A guard performed a check of the open dormitory that housed Butler, Piersol and 18 other men, according to staffing records.
2 a.m.: A group of inmates had been verbally harassing Piersol for about 30 minutes and were pressuring Butler to join in, Butler said, threatening him with harm and saying he needed to “earn his (food) tray.”
Piersol was in the jail awaiting trial for charges related to the rape of a 3-year-old girl. The other inmates were calling him a child molester, Butler said. According to witness statements, Butler was agreeable to the idea of targeting Piersol, Talebi said.
2:03 a.m.: Piersol is assaulted by Butler, investigators said. The assault isn’t visible on the camera because of a glare from a window and other inmates standing in the way. No guards respond, Talebi said, but the fight ends after 36 seconds.
“Butler delivered several blows to the victim and struck the victim in his head with his knee,” Talebi said.
2:04 a.m.: Butler can be seen, shirtless, walking away from the group. He briefly hangs his head partially off camera, then returns to the group.
2:26 a.m.: A guard performs another check of the dorm. Inmates had reportedly cleaned up blood from the floor and Butler had switched pants with another inmate to conceal blood.
At some point Piersol is reportedly followed into the bathroom by several other inmates. He emerges looking disorientated, with marks on his face, and Butler’s defense said he’d been assaulted again. The video footage isn’t good enough to identify who entered the bathroom.
“The reason Mr. Piersol went to the bathroom was because he was not feeling well after the assault, suffering from concussion-like symptoms,” Talebi said. Other inmates reported that they followed him to the bathroom to help him because he appeared to be getting sick.
3:26 a.m.: Guard performs check of dorm and doesn’t report anything unusual.
3:43 a.m.: An inmate hits the emergency call button, alerting guards that Piersol had fallen from his bunk striking his head on a piece of furniture and was on the ground seizing. He was flown via medical helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital.
Piersol died April 11 from complications of that seizure, which was caused by a skull fracture.
The medical examiner couldn’t say for certain if the skull fracture was a result of the assault, or if having suffered a concussion, Piersol fell from his bunk and cracked his skull on the furniture or ground, Talebi said.
“Striking Mr. Piersol caused a series of events which eventually led to the death of Mr. Piersol,” Talebi told the judge during sentencing.
No other changes planned
Besides the addition of new cameras, Springhetti said no other changes are planned at the Mechanicsburg facility, which houses inmates from Champaign, Union and Madison counties.
“We follow the state guidelines for security checks,” he said. “Those were all done within that guideline,” which is no more than 60 minutes between in-person checks of each dorm.
The jail continues to examine options for alleviating overcrowding.
The average daily population for 2014 through October is 164 inmates, which is the same as last year’s average and down from 170 per day in 2012.
The state mandated capacity is 160 inmates, but the jail has added extra beds so it can house up to 200 individuals.
The biggest issue is an increased female population, which has necessitated housing extra women in a converted unit.
That means that when an inmate gets in trouble or needs to be segregated from others, less space is available to house them individually and many remain in general population.
The jail commission has discussed adding on, Corbett said, but the most recent estimate is close to $7 million for a 120-bed addition. No funding sources have been identified.
“That’s just construction,” Springhetti said. It doesn’t include the cost of adding extra staff, equipment, utility costs and feeding 120 more inmates.