Bishop Richard Cox and the head of the local New Black Panther Party held a press conference in Dayton claiming they were inspired to act after being contacted by several black and white corrections officers.
Among the allegations, Cox claimed:
- Sheriff's office employees routinely segregate inmates at the county jail, placing white female inmates in the newer areas and black females in the more dilapidated cells.
- Complaints about racism and segregation of inmates made to Plummer have led to retaliation against the complaining corrections officers instead of internal investigations.
- More people were involved in texting racist messages than the sheriff publicly acknowledged, and that command staff including the sheriff himself were "involved" in the texting.
- The sheriff has misled the public about misdeeds by his officers and the punishment they received, including saying that two deputies involved in the racist texting were fired when in fact they retired on medical disability.
“This has been going on for quite some time, and that shows the racism that’s allegedly happening at the sheriff’s office is totally out of control,” Cox said.
“Is it corruption? is it coverup? Is it lies? Is it racism? I believe it’s all of these things,” he said, “and because of that, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is asking Sheriff Plummer to resign immediately from the sheriff’s office and as the chairman of the (Montgomery County) Republican Party.”
Plummer’s office sent a deputy who said he was from its “social media” section to record today’s press conference. Cox and Donald Domineck from the Dayton New Black Panther Party asked him to leave and accused the sheriff of “intimidation.”
The sheriff’s office has been contacted for response to these claims and this story will be updated when that information is provided.
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