Who's this legislative dipshit? Meet State Rep. Phil Plummer (R-Dayton)
Plummer is a toxic mix of dumb and evil.
Welcome to The Rooster’s latest installment of the ongoing series, “Who’s this legislative dipshit?”
Ohio State Rep. Phil “Abu Ghraib” Plummer (R-Dayton) made a career out of the human misery that’s innate to our so-called criminal justice system.
Yes, some “corrections” officers are simply working a job with no other choice. But then there are guys like Plummer that enjoy spending a third of their day in county jail so much that they turn it into a career.
I first learned of Plummer’s existence in a press release featuring typical cop hysteria around a fentanyl bust.
From the office of then-Ohio Attorney General DeWine June 12th, 2018 (emphasis mine).
(DAYTON, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Steve Francis today announced the seizure of approximately 20 pounds of fentanyl with the capability of killing more than four million people.
Authorities with the Miami Valley Bulk Smuggling Task Force, which is part of the Ohio Attorney General's Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission, seized the approximately 20 pounds of fentanyl last night.
Cops never mention the total supply of fentanyl available on the street—enough to kill the human race many times over—to make it seem like they just saved “more than four million people” from a certain death.
It’s part of why you see cops crying and shaking when they come within 50 yards of fentanyl. They have bought into their propaganda that a few flakes of the stuff can be fatal by the touch.
Regardless, Plummer and DeWine got it all wrong. They didn’t bust any fentanyl! It was cocaine.
From Mark Gokavi of daytondailynews.com on June 28, 2018:
Officials with the Miami Valley Bulk Smuggling Task Force issued the following statement:
“In regards to the drug arrest that happened on June 11th, 2018, the drugs tested positive for Fentanyl during a ‘field test’ and intelligence gathered during the investigation indicated the group was allegedly involved in narcotics trafficking.
“Upon further testing of the drugs, at the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab, it was determined that the contents inside the packages contained Cocaine not Fentanyl. It is not uncommon for ‘field tests’ to sometimes differ from Laboratory testing, which is why laboratory testing in required and necessary in all drug cases.
In my Statehouse novice days, such as in 2018, I would have assumed that DeWine, a master campaigner, did this on purpose because he knew that the news of the bust would travel much, much further than any subsequent correction.
But almost five years later, and being more familiar with the mental acuity of then-Montgomery Sherrif Plummer, it’s entirely possible that his goon squad ran a single “field test” and decided to go get beers during the last two hours of their shift that day.
Given some of the other lawsuits involving his time as Montgomery County Sherriff, this scenario can’t entirely be ruled out. Fucking up a basic drug test on 20 pounds of street narcotics is peanuts compared to the other stuff in which he and his deputies engaged.
From Gabi Warwick of dayton247now.com in August 2017:
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ohio (WKEF/WRGT) - A settlement has been reached after a federal lawsuit was filed against Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer, county commissioners, and two sheriff's captains over an alleged used of force incident the Montgomery County Jail.
Amber Swink was awarded $375,000 as a settlement of the civil case against the Sheriff's Office, according to Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck, Jr.
The lawsuit filed in September 2016 said Swink had her arms and legs restrained inside a chair in a jail holding cell when she was pepper sprayed in the face by a jail official. Dayton Attorney Douglas Brannon said Swink was tortured while in the jail, and that she only received minimal medical attention after a full can of pepper spray point-black into her face.
Sounds awful, right? Well, Plummer immediately fired the officer responsible… for saving the video in the first place.
The move cost Montgomery County over $220,000 in additional funds.
From Mark Govaki and Josh Sweigart of daytondailynews.com in August 2019:
The January 2018 firing of a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office sergeant who was responsible for making public a video of the November 2015 pepper-spraying of a restrained jail inmate was “arbitrary and discriminatory,” according to an an arbitrator ruling obtained by the Dayton Daily News.
Sgt. Ransley Creech was reinstated in mid-December and was instead given a five-day suspension for failing to provide the video to administration when it was noted as missing.
Creech then went on administrative leave before agreeing to resign Jan. 11 under a settlement agreement obtained by the Dayton Daily News. The sheriff’s office will pay Creech $82,892.25 in back pay and $142,107.75 to settle all employment-related legal claims.
This incident alone should be disqualifying for any Sheriff seeking a political promotion. But it wasn’t an isolated incident. Instead, it was part of a consistent pattern of abuse in Plummer’s jail.
Here’s an entire 10-minute report on the abuse from The Esrati Report:
And those are just the crimes we know about that happened under Plummer’s watch! In total, it cost Montgomery County residents over $10 million.
From Mark Gokavi and Chris Stewart of daytondailynews.com in August 2018:
Montgomery County and its insurers could be on the hook for more than $10 million in settlements and legal costs in a string of lawsuits alleging inmate mistreatment — some resulting in deaths — in its jail, according to Montgomery County Commissioner Debbie Lieberman.
“The lawsuits that just kept coming in are unbelievable the last few years,” Lieberman said. “Things happen, and perhaps the layout of the jail might not be the best, but it’s a number of things.”
“Things happen” is a helluva statement considering the facts of the case. And blaming the layout of the jail rather than the commanding officer is a choice, too!
It’s a moot point, however. Plummer resigned as Sheriff in December 2018 after winning a Republican gerrymandered seat in the Ohio Statehouse, where he officially became a problem for the rest of the state.
Threat Level: Goodnight, Grandpa!
Plummer and State Rep. Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) were seen as the two favorites entering what many observers knew would be a bitterly contested battle for the Ohio House Speakership.
Plummer, in a bid to deny Stephens a six-year Speakership, threw his support to the upstart bid of State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova Township). Merrin won the unofficial, Republican-only vote and named Plummer to his leadership team.
That arrangement would have come to fruition, too, hadn’t an insane communist blogger forced a piece of Republican blackmail into the public sphere:
Plummer has no political skills other than doling out pain and punishment to incarcerated souls.
He is a brute, not a thinker, which is why he threw in with Merrin’s joker-ass holy roller crew, and why he’s crying about the ensuing consequences of his actions.
Somebody should tell his ass to get a haircut. He currently looks like a retired hippie who works part-time at the local funeral parlor for alimony money.
A lot of history here of these documented idiot freaks. Thank you so much.
There's a kingpin drug lord/cartel in charge of all these fuckin morons I guarantee it.
I honestly think the worst part of these fuckers is just how little the electorate knows/cares about these fuckwads conduct. I mean, FFS, Householder got a federal indictment and was still reelected. *deep sigh* God I want to see Ohio turn it around, but I doubt it ever does