Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley has named a special prosecutor to review the death of a woman physically restrained by law enforcement at MetroHealth Medical Center in May.
The move comes after the county medical examiner, Thomas Gilson, ruled 39-year-old Tasha Grant’s death a homicide. Officials said the physical restraint caused Grant’s breathing to slow and, ultimately, her heart to stop.
The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department is investigating Grant’s death. County officials declined to offer any additional information.
Attorney Brian Kraft was appointed as special prosecutor, a spokesperson for O’Malley said. Kraft was once a longtime assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor.
Grant’s final moments are described in reports written in May by the sheriff’s deputy and MetroHealth police who were present, as well as the autopsy.
Grant, whose legs had been amputated years earlier, complained of chest pain after 15 days in the Cuyahoga County jail. An ambulance transported her to MetroHealth Medical Center on May 2.
Three days later, at the hospital, MetroHealth officers said Grant “threw herself onto the floor” and “would not cooperate.”
Medical staff requested assistance. Three MetroHealth officers and a sheriff’s deputy grabbed Grant’s arms, waist and torso. Medical staff injected a drug into Grant’s right arm to subdue her as she lay on her stomach with an officer’s hands on her back.
MetroHealth officers said they left the room after the sheriff’s deputy handcuffed Grant to the bed. She was found unresponsive 14 minutes later at 5:52 p.m., according to the autopsy.
The medical examiner identified internal bleeding in muscles caused by pressure placed on Grant’s neck, and video of the restraint showed Grant’s chest and abdomen against the side of the hospital bed as pressure was applied to her backside.
Christopher Harris, a spokesperson for the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office, said the homicide ruling does not imply wrongdoing.
The restraint, the report concluded, caused excessive drowsiness, difficulty breathing and subsequent heart failure.
“She had no legs. Why would they restrain her down like that?” said Marcellus Potter, who shares an 11-year-old son with Grant.
In a two-sentence report, Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon Coffey wrote: “While on this detail, Tasha D. Grant died while in the custody and while being in the care of Metro Health staff members.”
Coffey did not respond to a request for comment.
No officer was in the room when Grant became unresponsive, according to records. The sheriff’s department and MetroHealth are pointing fingers at each other.
Incarcerated people taken to MetroHealth Medical Center from the jail remain “under the sheriff’s department’s responsibility,” Timothy Magaw, a spokesperson for MetroHealth, wrote in a statement.
“Custody and any required administrative restraints (e.g., handcuffs) remain the responsibility of law enforcement,” he said. He declined further comment.
In May, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne’s office emailed local media a short statement about Grant’s death, mentioning her preexisting medical conditions but nothing about physical restraint.
After the medical examiner’s ruling, a county spokesperson provided that same statement to local media on Wednesday, adding in italics: “This matter is currently an open homicide investigation.”
Homicides are exceedingly rare for the jail’s population. A Marshall Project – Cleveland review of the previous 28 in-custody deaths found one homicide — at the hands of a cellmate.
Potter said Grant could be combative and resistant to help, but also kind when stable.
“Every ambulance [worker] … knew her name,” Potter said, adding that she was a nice person and many of the nurses who worked with her “understood who she was.”
Court records show that, like other patients suffering bouts of severe mental illness, Grant had a history of encounters with hospital staff and police.
Her most recent criminal charges stemmed from a September 2024 arrest at Southwest General Health Center in Middleburg Heights, where she was charged with felony assault against two officers and two nurses.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Shannon Gallagher, who presided over Grant’s case, ordered a mental health evaluation to determine if Grant was capable of assisting her court-appointed attorney in her own defense and understanding the legal process. Support services were recommended but later dropped as a condition of her pretrial release.
Grant’s former attorney did not answer multiple phone calls seeking comment.
Grant was released in December. There’s no record of a mental health evaluation being completed. An arrest warrant was issued on April 16. She was taken back into custody the next day and remained at the Cuyahoga County jail until her transfer to MetroHealth Medical Center.
