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The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office on Friday announced the indictment of two fired East Cleveland police officers accused of kidnapping and assaulting a man in custody. (File photo)

(File photo)

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio - Two former East Cleveland police officers are facing felony charges accusing them of assaulting a prisoner in their custody.

Fired officers Denayne Dixon and Gerald Spencer II are charged with kidnapping, felonious assault, conspiracy, and four lesser offenses in a July 24 incident, according to an indictment handed up Friday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Jesse R. Nickerson, 28, of East Cleveland, said the officers attacked him at Forest Hill Park following his arrest on several charges related to a stolen gun. He suffered numerous cuts and bruises in the incident, prosecutors said.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation into the officers' conduct.

East Cleveland Chief Michael Cardilli characterized the officers' conduct as "illegal and immoral activity" when he announced their firings July 28.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office dismissed four charges against Nickerson last month amid the investigation into the fired officers.

The officers arrested Nickerson and two other men on East 135th Street after they spotted a 2000 BMW 5 matching the description of a car involved in a robbery, Dixon wrote in a police report.

The officers found a handgun under the car, near where Nickerson was standing. The three men were arrested and taken to the East Cleveland Police Department, the report says.

Nickerson told defense attorney Heather McCollough, who represented him at East Cleveland Municipal Court, that the officers took him to Forest Hill Park and assaulted him before taking him to the police station. The report does not mention a stop at the park.

Nickerson had been charged with receiving stolen property, tampering with evidence, carrying a concealed weapon and having weapons while under disability in the incident. A Cuyahoga County grand jury indicted him July 29.

Dixon's and Spencer's personnel files -- which were released in July to cleveland.com -- do not show any prior incidents that resulted in discipline.

Dixon had been with the department since October 2014 and was still in his probationary period, Cardilli said. Spencer joined the department in May 2015.

The indictment is the latest stain on the department. In April, a former East Cleveland detective was sentenced to six years in federal prison for his role in a scheme to rip off suspected drug dealers and steal money by filing fake search warrants.

In June, a jury awarded a Maple Heights man $22 million for a 2012 traffic stop during which he was punched by an East Cleveland police officer and locked in a storage closet for four days without food, water or access to a toilet.

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