A routine review of bodycam footage revealed a Wayne County, Ohio, Sheriff’s deputy dragging a screaming woman from her home by her feet. When learning he was to be fired over his brutal treatment of the mental health patient, he resigned—and took a job at another Sheriff’s department.
Peterman
The deputy, named as Ryan Peterman, responded to a call on June 15th from relatives of the Marshallville woman, who were concerned about her refusal to accept treatment. The woman was intoxicated, Fox News reports, and threatening to harm herself.
Instead of calling in a mental health team, however, bodycam footage shows Peterman and another deputy carrying her by the legs and arms out of the residence. When she resists, they get rough: one deputy puts her on the ground and gets on top of her, while he grabs her ankles. At the door of the residence, Peterman yanks the screaming woman down the home’s stoop, her head bouncing off the steps as she goes.
Sheriff Travis Hutchinson said that Peterman used unreasonable force and failed to follow departmental policy concerning mentally-ill patients, but resigned before he could be fired.
“I was appalled. I was very disappointed in his actions,” he told Fox 8 reporter Jack Shea. Hutchinson told ABC news that the department had not received any complaints from Peterman’s victim or other citizens before the footage was discovered.
“What was Wayne County’s loss is Holmes County’s gain,” Zimmerly told the Record, confirming that Peterman had been sworn in as a deputy.