Witnesses disagree whether Brian Tellier used reasonable force on jail inmate in 2023

ELYRIA — Veteran Lorain County corrections officers and a defense expert who testified Wednesday in Brian Tellier's felonious assault trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court offered different conclusions about Tellier's actions on May 12, 2023. Corrections Lt. Mike Crum and Sgt. David Kish told a jury in Judge Chris Cook's courtroom that Tellier's use of physical force on handcuffed inmate Jeffrey Fry, then 58, was unreasonable. Defense expert Samuel Faulkner disagreed. Tellier's response "was reasonable" in the seconds he was given to respond to what he thought was Fry trying to escape, the former Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy instructor testified. Charged in July, Tellier, 36, of Elyria, pleaded not guilty to one count of felonious assault, two counts of tampering with records and one count of tampering with evidence, all felonies, and dereliction of duty, a misdemeanor. Sheriff Jack Hall, who was elected in 2024, suspended Tellier after taking office in January. Cook on Wednesday dismissed the tampering with evidence charge, ruling that the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office had not presented enough evidence to prove that charge. The remaining charges will be decided by the jury, the judge ruled. Assistant Prosecutor Paul Griffin rested his case Wednesday after a full day of testimony by investigators. Defense attorney George Gerken said Tellier may testify today. Fry did not testify. The defense and prosecution stipulated to the fact Fry suffered serious physical harm during the incident, though the sides disagree on whether Tellier is criminally responsible. The defense is that Fry was trying to escape when he either tripped and fell or was controlled with reasonable force in keeping with Tellier's training. Griffin and sheriff's officials allege the level of force was unreasonable and outside protocol, policy and training. Tellier was taking Fry for a full-body scan just after 8 p.m. May 12, 2023, when Fry, who was handcuffed, pulled his left arm and shoulder away from Tellier. The defense alleged he tried to escape out an open garage door and had to be stopped or was thrown headfirst into a wall. A 32-year veteran corrections officer who investigates when the use of force on inmates, Crum said Tellier's report differed from what the video showed. "I was concerned with what was written and what was on the video, because what was written didn't match what was on the video," Crum testified. "I thought we had a big problem." Tellier didn't follow his training or policy and didn't keep two hands on Fry while guiding him, cuffed behind his back, to the body scanner, he testified. Tellier's written account that he had both of his hands on Fry's shoulders also wasn't true, Crum testified. Instead, the video showed Tellier lowering his body like a wrestler about to do a takedown as he tried to control Fry. If Tellier had been hit, he would have been allowed to hit back, Crum testified. Tellier also had other verbal or "soft" physical options for controlling an "irritated" but non-violent inmate like Fry, whom officials said was intoxicated when brought to the Lorain County Jail by Elyria police Officer Ali Sabeiha. Crum testified that corrections Sgt. Jennifer Jones was mistaken when she found Tellier's use of force reasonable. She changed her mind only after she reviewed video of the incident, and was "counseled" for her mistake, Crum testified. Fry "was not 'guided' to the ground" like Tellier wrote in his report, Crum testified, and couldn't protect his head from the fall. "It was an uncontrolled takedown." Fry, now 60, suffered spinal injury and will require medical care for life according to his attorneys. His $40 million lawsuit against the county, the city of Elyria and multiple individual defendants is pending in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. Gerken questioned Crum and Kish on just how well Tellier was trained, suggesting he wasn't given the kind of training they said was policy at the sheriff's office at the time and wasn't presented with departmental policy on using force against inmates. Crum testified that Tellier wouldn't have been trained to escort even a handcuffed prisoner with only one hand. "We don't teach one-handed escort techniques," he told the jury. An inmate fleeing or attempting to flee custody at the jail doesn't mean corrections officers can use whatever force they want to recapture that person, Crum testified. Faulkner, who served with police departments in Portage, Madison and Champaign counties and was a use of force instructor at the state police academy for more than 20 years, testified that hindsight is 20/20 and not something an officer has the luxury of in a use-of-force situation. Tellier had a split second to decide what to do when Fry pulled away from him and turned his body toward an open garage door to flee the jail, Faulkner testified. He said he based his conclusion on his experience, his graduate degree in exercise physiology, all the videos of the incident and a phone interview with Tellier. One arm was sufficient to keep Fry in custody, Faulkner testified. "I believe it was a reasonable, trained response," Faulkner testified when asked if Tellier did the right thing. Tellier also could only write in his report what he perceived, not what the video later showed his supervisors. Cross-examined by Grifffin, Faulkner admitted he hadn't reviewed what on-the-job training Tellier received, nor had he reviewed any investigative reports written by corrections staff including Crum and Kish who looked into the incident. Faulkner also admitted he mistakenly referred to Fry by a different inmate's name in his report; that Tellier never appeared to lose his balance prior to Fry's injury; that Tellier never put both hands on Fry's shoulders as he claimed; and that Tellier never claimed any memory problems before or after writing his report on the incident. What Tellier wrote in his report, "it's not totally corroborated by the video, no," Faulkner admitted on the stand. In a separate case also in Cook's court, Tellier has pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor child endangering after a 6-year-old boy in his care ingested a THC gummy. The next hearing in that case is Dec. 15. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com