7 Million reasons why Sheriff Streck should be facing charges alongside his ill-trained staff of killers

Montgomery County just agreed to pay $7 million to settle the killing of Christian Black. Seven million taxpayer dollars. Seven million that could have gone to roads, parks, or a safer jail. Instead, it paid for the incompetence, cruelty, and indifference of a Sheriff who should have been the first one charged.

If you need any indication how guilty the ten corrections officers are, the fact that this is settling this quick, for this much, is all you need.

And yet here we are: Sheriff Rob Streck still wearing the badge, still drawing a paycheck, still hiding behind the excuse that his staff “wasn’t trained properly.” That’s the story the visiting prosecutor from Columbus is floating, hoping the public swallows it. No charges, no grand jury, just a shrug and a settlement check. That meeting is next week. As it is, 6 of the killers are back on duty as reported here long ago ^[1].

This was no accident

Let’s be crystal clear: “lack of training” is not a defense to homicide.

Every correctional officer in that room had CPR and first aid training. Every one of them had eyes and ears. They watched a man, strapped in three places, pepper-sprayed, tased, bent over until his lungs collapsed. They watched him slump forward. Ten people. Two sergeants. Nobody said stop. Nobody said check his breathing. Nobody started CPR until four and a half minutes too late.

That’s not a training gap. That’s a culture gap. That’s leadership failure. That’s deliberate indifference to human life.

I rewatched the video today that I made 4 months ago. It was as painful to watch today as it was then. If you need a refresher course, watch it again.

The expert says says…

Don’t take my word for it. A former warden and corrections consultant with nearly 40 years of experience reviewed this case as an expert witness in the family’s civil action. His declaration was damning:

• Staff applied pressure to Christian Black’s torso and neck while bent forward in the chair, a known risk for positional asphyxia.
• Jail policy already warned against ignoring medical distress.
• The restraint chair was designed with a tether system to prevent exactly this outcome. Staff were trained on it. They ignored it.
• The risk wasn’t hidden. It wasn’t theoretical. It was written into their own policies and disregarded.

The conclusion was clear: the staff’s failure to follow training, policy, and basic correctional practice directly caused Christian Black’s death.

This isn’t new

I’ve seen this before. In 2018, under then-Sheriff Phil Plummer, I exposed video of Charles Alexander Wade being pepper-sprayed while strapped in the same chair. The same misuse. The same abuse. Different sheriff, same outcome. Now Plummer is #3 in the Ohio House of Representatives, and Streck is still running the jail like nothing happened.

I mention the old video in the new one, so I’m not putting the link in.

A sheriff isn’t a warden

Maybe this is the core problem: Montgomery County doesn’t have a warden running its jail. It has a sheriff.

Sheriffs in Ohio are elected politicians, often with policing backgrounds, not corrections. They don’t go through the professional development, certification, or national training programs that wardens do. Wardens are correctional leaders, trained to manage complex facilities, medical risks, and inmate populations. Sheriffs are politicians in uniforms, more worried about elections than evidence-based correctional management.

It’s like putting a traffic cop in charge of a hospital ICU — and then acting shocked when patients die. Maybe this is the most important change we can make.

Too little, too late

And what’s the County Commission’s big response? Approve a $20 million “Behavioral Health Unit” for the jail. Too little, too late. You can’t pour ARPA funds into padded cells and detox beds and call it reform when the real problem is a house of horrors where staff are judge, jury, and executioner.

The prosecutor’s insult

I’ve spoken with people close to the Dayton Police Department investigation. They know what happened. They saw what I saw in that video. They believe charges should stick.

But we’ve got a visiting prosecutor from Franklin County who doesn’t even want to walk into a grand jury room. Why? Because if a grand jury saw that video, even a ham sandwich would be indicted.

So instead, we’re told: “These officers weren’t properly trained.” Translation: “We can’t hold killers accountable if their boss never told them not to kill.” It’s nonsense. It’s cowardice. It’s an insult to the public and a slap in the face to Christian Black’s family.

The real question

Seven million dollars doesn’t buy silence, it gave Christian Black’s family a measure of vindication and respect, something he never got in that chair. But respect for one family doesn’t change the reality that the Montgomery County Jail has been killing people for years.

The real question isn’t whether we need padded cells or a new wing. The real question is why Sheriff Rob Streck and his command staff are still in charge after presiding over a jail where death has become routine.

This jail is unfit for human habitation, not because of its walls or its plumbing, but because of the people who run it. And until they are removed, no amount of taxpayer money or shiny new construction will change that.

Song: Who runs the jail? By David Esrati