The Enquirer10%
2 prison employees charged after Lebanon Correctional inmate dies 9%
By Jennifer Edwards Baker12% Brady Williams8%
8/3/2026, 1:35:09 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 20 faulty reasoning types, including Quote-first Misdirection, Appeal to Authority, and Status Quo Bias, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 9.2% saturation with 106 hits. Analysis detected 748 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,151 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 19.5% and a BS Rank of 9% (25,330 of 27,714 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 91.40% of the article peer group.
Two employees at a state prison in Warren County face misdemeanor charges in connection with the death of an inmate, court records show.
Corrections Officer Jeromy Roberts and a prison nurse, Tiffany Ramsey, were both put on paid administrative leave just days after LaSelle Allen died late last year, weeks before his scheduled release.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol launched an investigation into “dereliction of duty” and “other death,” according to a copy of the incident report.
Roberts 44, of Englewood in the northern Dayton suburbs, was under scrutiny for his use of force, state records show, but prison officials never said at the time why Ramsey, 36, of Fairfield, was off the job.
Allen, 38, of Toledo, was scheduled to be released from prison on Jan.
6.
He was at Lebanon Correctional Institution serving a 1.5-year sentence for convictions in Lucas County on charges of aggravated assault and attempted discharge of a firearm at or near habitation/school, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction website.
He was involved in an altercation with another inmate on Nov. 29, 2025, after which prison staff used pepper spray and removed him from his cell, the coroner said at the time of his death.
He was taken from the prison in Turtlecreek Township to Atrium Medical Center by ambulance and pronounced dead at 9:38 a.m.
Newly filed criminal complaints detail the allegations against the prison employees and allege the crimes occurred at 8:40 a.m., about an hour before he was pronounced dead.
The complaint said Roberts was working as a temporary lieutenant when he sprayed a chemical irritant into Allen's face six times within one minute, while Allen lay on the floor in hand restraints.
"After the application of the chemical irritant, Roberts continued to use vulgarities and showed little concern for well-being during an apparent medical episode, just prior to death," his criminal complaint states.
The complaint states Ramsey delayed the inspection of the inmate's vital signs for 10 minutes and 38 seconds, and required notification from a corrections officer that the inmate appeared to not be breathing.
The report said once notified, Ramsey did not begin CPR for five minutes and 21 seconds.
Approximately midway through the delay, Ramsey declared she did not personally detect a pulse.
Body camera video footage is not being released now due to the ongoing investigation, representatives for both the corrections department and the highway patrol said Monday, Aug.
3.
At the time of Allen’s death, Warren County Coroner Dr.
Russell Uptegrove said there was no major trauma or illness that showed an obvious cause of death, so more tests, including toxicology, were needed.
Allen had bruises and scrapes, including black eyes, contusions on his forehead and small cuts and contusions on his legs and arms, he said.
The coroner confirmed at that time Allen was pepper-sprayed by prison staff – but said he wasn’t allergic to it.
The coroner said Allen was found to have had drugs hidden in his sock.
The drug had to be analyzed at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s lab, he said.
The lab determined it was a synthetic prison drug commonly referred to as “Tune,” which is often made from paper soaked in chemicals such as bug spray, according to the coroner.
He said there is not a well-defined toxic or lethal level for these prison drugs, so it is not easy to say this was an overdose.
“Toxicology tests as part of the autopsy found a small amount of it in his system, and it may cause cardiac arrhythmia.
We’ve ruled everything else out but that,” Uptegrove said.So while Allen’s cause of death is undetermined, “if I had to bet, it might be related to this drug he had on him.
There was no indication that pepper spray had anything to do with it.
And he didn’t have any serious injuries.
It wasn’t like he was beaten to death,” the coroner said.
The coroner's office recently ruled Allen’s cause of death as “undetermined.”
Both employees remain on paid administrative leave, an agency spokeswoman confirmed Monday.
Highway patrol investigators have charged both employees with dereliction of duty.
Roberts faces an additional charge of assault, court records show.
Both are summoned to appear in Lebanon Municipal Court on Aug.
13.
They were not physically arrested.
So far, neither has responded to requests for comment or listed an attorney in the court record.
A union representative for Roberts declined comment Monday.
Warren County Prosecutor Dave Fornshell referred Fox 19 to Lebanon Municipal Court, where the prosecutor has not responded.
Neither agency would discuss the case or charges.
The highway patrol also declined comment.
Allen's family contacted Fox19 two days after his death and asked for an investigation because they felt they weren’t getting answers from the prison.
His mother and sister said Saturday they were unaware charges were filed until Fox contacted them for comment.
Allen’s mother, Rose Sailes of Toledo, said last she heard about the case June 24, when, the prosecutor's office told her that they weren’t going to be charging the workers with felonies because the coroner couldn’t find the cause of death.
His family said he sent a text Aug. 11, 2025, saying he filed a grievance against a corrections officer and asked his girlfriend to call the director of the corrections department.
He said in the text he feared for his life and was concerned about being targeted.
Fox 19 asked for copies of all grievances Allsen filed but were told those records are not available to the public.
His mother said she last heard from her son during a phone call the day before he died.
She said he told her he had less than 30 days to go before his release and he was just trying to get through it.
He leaves behind nine children and was preceded in death by a 10th child, according to his family.
Roberts has been a corrections officer since 2016 and worked his entire career at Lebanon Correctional Institution, according to records in his personnel file.
His job performance reviews are all positive with overall ratings of “Exceeds Expectations.”
Supervisors widely praised him and/or his work as diligent, flawless, meticulous, accurate, professional, respectful and prompt.
Ramsey was hired just weeks before she was put on leave and had no job reviews in her file.
As of Monday, her state nursing license is listed as active, according to a spokesman for the Ohio Nursing Board.It was originally issued on Dec. 16, 2024, he said.If she is convicted of a “misdemeanor that has a direct and substantial relationship to nursing practice,” she is required to report that to the nursing board within 30 days.
“The record becomes public if fault is found and discipline is administered,” Dean Heid wrote in an email.
Enquirer media partner Fox 19 provided this report.
Speakers
3speakers23%attributed speech885writer words
Selected voice
100%flagged-word coverageDean Heid
18 attributed words6.8% of attributed speech48% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
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