Ohio county agrees $7M jail‑death settlement
Montgomery County, Ohio agreed to a $7 million settlement with the family of 25‑year‑old Christian Black, who died after being restrained in the county jail on March 26, 2025. The county coroner ruled Black’s death a homicide likely from positional asphyxia after video showed deputies pinning him and placing him in a restraint chair; the family’s attorneys say about nine minutes passed before CPR was begun and are pressing for criminal accountability and reforms including more mental‑health inpatient beds.
Crime
Legal
🔍 Key Facts
- Montgomery County agreed to a $7,000,000 settlement with the family of Christian Black.
- Christian Black, 25, died after being restrained in the county jail on March 26, 2025; the coroner ruled the death a homicide and cited likely positional asphyxia.
- Video released by the family shows nine deputies restraining Black, placing him in a restraint chair, checks of eyes and blood pressure while he was unresponsive, and a roughly nine‑minute gap before CPR was started; Black died two days after being hospitalized.
📍 Contextual Background
- Video footage captured an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer pushing a visibly upset Ecuadoran woman to the ground outside an immigration court at the 26 Federal Plaza building in Manhattan.
- The Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying the officer was being relieved of current duties while a full investigation was conducted and denouncing the officer's conduct as unacceptable.
- YouTube and its parent company Alphabet agreed to pay a total of $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Donald J. Trump over the temporary suspension of his YouTube account after the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack.
- Federal prosecutors commonly resolve federal criminal charges through plea agreements, which typically result in a sentence below the statutory maximum.
- Meta agreed to pay $25 million to Donald J. Trump to settle a 2021 lawsuit over its suspension of his accounts following the Capitol attack.
- Two U.S. officials told CBS News that the ICE officer who was captured on video pushing the woman was returned to duty after a preliminary review of the incident.
- X agreed to pay $10 million to Donald J. Trump to settle its lawsuit concerning his account suspension; that lawsuit was filed before Elon Musk acquired the platform.