Former Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge Tracie Hunter has filed a grievance stating she was injured while being placed in custody during her court sentencing Monday. A release from the sheriff's office says she's being held in the medical unit.
Sheriff Jim Neil says he checked on Hunter on Tuesday and that's when he received the grievance. No details of the alleged injury or medical treatment has been released at this time, but a release says "an investigation is under way."
"We cannot disclose any details of her alleged injury or anything related to her medical treatment," the sheriff's release says, adding that Hunter has "full access to a telephone and has the same privileges of other inmates."
Hunter was convicted of having an unlawful interest in a public contract in 2014 and was accused of trying to protect her brother's county job. Common Pleas Judge Patrick Dinkelacker ordered Hunter to start her six-month jail sentence immediately after her sentencing Monday. In video taken in the courtroom by our news partner WCPO, Hunter appears to go limp when deputies try to take her into custody. She was ultimately dragged from the courtroom by a deputy.
Some have argued that Hunter is being punished more harshly than a white person in the same position would have been.
Prior to the sentencing, both Mayor John Cranley and Vice Mayor Christopher Smitherman wrote letters to Judge Dinkelacker asking for leniency in Hunter's sentencing. Monday evening, demonstrators gathered outside Dinkelacker's home in Green Township, chanting such phrases as "Hey, ho, Judge Dinkelacker must go!" and "Black lives matter!"
Dinkelacker has said he received 45 postcards at his home asking him to exonerate Hunter. He added that no judge should have to go through what he went through.
"I will never, ever, ever bow to that type of pressure," he said.
