Final report on sleeping Grafton prison guard released by state

GRAFTON — Prison officials have released a final investigative report on a corrections officer photographed sleeping aboard a prison transport bus returning to Grafton Correctional Institution last month. One of the officers admitted he "nodded off" on the bus while waiting for another officer to return to the bus from inside a rest stop on Interstate 71 during an unauthorized break, according to the investigation. No administrative action has been taken against the corrections officers involved as yet, an Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections spokesperson said this week. "The officers were removed from their posts and reassigned to a post inside the prison pending the completion of the disciplinary process," Sara French wrote in an email Tuesday. From time sheets, sign-in and sign-out sheets, cellphone records, schedules and orders, investigators determined that prison transportation officers Sean Moran and Michael Bonnett were assigned to a transportation bus shortly before 7 a.m. June 15 and left Grafton Correctional Institution with seven inmates en route to Franklin Medical Center. The medical center is a secure facility in Columbus where Ohio prison inmates receive treatment. The bus left Grafton Correctional at about 8 a.m. and arrived at Franklin Medical Center at 10:09 a.m., according to the investigative report. The bus left the medical center at 11:04 a.m. with Moran driving and no inmates on board. At 11:58 a.m. it was captured on surveillance video at the Pilot Travel Center on state Route 61 off Interstate 71 in Marengo, north of Columbus. Bonnett told investigators he wasn't feeling well, and admitted he made an unauthorized stop to use the restroom. Neither officer notified their supervisors of the stop, investigators determined. Video footage from the travel center showed Bonnett never used the restroom — he told investigators that by the time the men stopped, he was "feeling better" — but instead bought lunch from an Arby's at the rest stop just after noon. About 1 p.m., Joseph Clark approached the bus and took a photo of Moran asleep inside the bus, and took another after Moran woke. He told investigators and a Chronicle-Telegram reporter he was able to identify the institution where the guards worked from the patches on their uniforms. Ten minutes later, Clark, who identified himself to prison officials as "Jason Atwell," called Grafton Correctional and talked to Corrections Lt. Andrew Greene. He called back 20 minutes later and emailed the photos he took to Greene. Clark, who contacted not just the prison but local news media that same day to report what he saw and photographed, previously told a reporter that he used a fake name when contacting the prison because "The prison system knows and hates me." He also claimed Bonnett "begged" him not to tell anyone what he saw or took photos of. Moran and Bonnett called their office at 1:44 p.m. that day but did not report what had happened at the rest stop, investigators wrote. They only reported the incident when they arrived back in Grafton, returned their equipment and were off shift at 3:30 p.m. The corrections officers were armed during the trip but had locked their weapons on the bus, according to the investigative report. Moran never got off the bus and admitted to investigators it was him in the photo released by Clark. "I nodded off," he admitted to investigators. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.