THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - Sunday, February 17th 2008
TAMPA, Fla. — A deputy who was videotaped dumping a paralyzed man out of his wheelchair onto a Tampa jailhouse floor has been released from jail after posting bail. Jail records show Charlette Marshall-Jones was booked into the Orient Road jail early Saturday after turning herself in.
It is the same jail where Marshall-Jones worked. She is accused of tipping 32-year-old Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair. A videotape of the incident has been widely circulated. The Hillsborough County deputy was charged with one count of felony abuse of a disabled person and released after posting $3,500 bail. An attorney for Marshall-Jones listed in jail records did not return a phone message.
Surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation. Sterner said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.
Marshall-Jones was suspended without pay, and three other deputies were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation. Marshall-Jones is charged with abuse of a disabled person, a third-degree felony, said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. If convicted, she could be sent to prison for five years.
Sterner, who can drive a car but has not been able to walk since a 1994 wrestling accident, was arrested at his Riverview home and taken to the Orient Road Jail on a charge of fleeing and attempting to elude a police officer, according to records. He had called for charges to be filed against Marshall-Jones.
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