Cody Van Meter struggled to breathe as the 270-pound Franklin County deputy sheriff pinned him to the ground with a knee planted across his neck. One, two, three jabs in the ribs. Van Meter became disoriented as the deputy applied a bear hug on the ground. Then the deputy hoisted Van Meter into the air and body-slammed him like a professional wrestler delivering the knockout blow.

Cody Van Meter struggled to breathe as the 270-pound Franklin County deputy sheriff pinned him to the ground with a knee planted across his neck.

One, two, three jabs in the ribs. Van Meter became disoriented as the deputy applied a bear hug on the ground.

Then the deputy hoisted Van Meter into the air and body-slammed him like a professional wrestler delivering the knockout blow. It worked. Van Meter didn't know who he was supposed to be fighting when he got back to his feet.

Van Meter was not a criminal suspect. He was training to be a deputy.

"The whole scenario is made for you to fight and lose," he said. "They said if you give up, you're fired."

Deputy James Dishong wasn't investigated or disciplined for hurting Van Meter in 2015, but he could lose his job after another trainee went to a hospital in March with bruises under his eyes so deep that the cadet thought he had broken eye sockets.

Dishong is one of seven training-academy deputies or supervisors whom the sheriff's internal-affairs bureau has accused of violating policy this year while they prepared the first class of jail deputies for other jobs in the department.

One deputy described the training scenario to investigators as "almost like a gang initiation." Some of the trainers nicknamed themselves the "Spartans," according to trainees.

The sheriff's office plan disciplinary hearings for all those deputies in the coming weeks.

Trainees and instructors contacted by The Dispatch declined to comment for this story. Records show that Sheriff Zach Scott ordered them to not talk about the incident. Scott also declined to comment.

The sheriff's internal-affairs division recommended suspension or firing for all seven employees involved. Several of them should have stopped the incident in March, according to the investigation report.

Deputy Tory Hardesty was one of 14 who needed to pass a final test to graduate from patrolling jail cells to policing crime on the streets. But the internal-affairs investigation determined that Hardesty was singled out.

Weeks before Hardesty's final training scenario, Dishong allegedly told other deputies that Hardesty would have a "bad day."

One of those deputies filed the complaint that triggered the investigation. Others told investigators that they didn't remember Dishong threatening Hardesty.

For the test, deputies ran through an exhausting exercise before they fought to keep their gun from an attacker.

Dishong volunteered to be Hardesty's attacker for the test.

Dishong is accused of intentionally harming Hardesty by continuing to punch him in the face after his headgear came off. Other deputies should have stopped the scenario and gotten Hardesty immediate medical attention, according to the report.

Supervisors who improperly signed off on paperwork after the class also could face discipline.

"After reviewing the report, we had some questions and concerns about the information provided, which we plan to address during the disciplinary process," said Jason Pappas, president of Fraternal Order of Police Local No. 9, which represented both the cadets and the trainers in the incident.

Dishong told the investigator that Hardesty threw the first punches. Dishong said he only mirrored the cadet's force.

He tried to use a cold spoon afterward to keep blood from pooling under Hardesty's eyes.

Dishong said Hardesty was "a real standup guy to be able to take punches like that," according to one cadet.

Hardesty eventually went to a hospital, and Dishong was removed as a trainer for that class of cadets.

The trainers disputed much of what the cadets alleged, according to the documents.

Dishong told the internal investigator that he never called himself a "Spartan" and that instructors "were only to go 30-40 percent of their full force." Dishong said they didn't discourage cadets from reporting injuries.

There is no video of Hardesty's March training fight.

Van Meter's training fight in 2015 was caught on cellphone video. Van Meter said that when he completed the test, he was afraid to seek medical attention because he thought doing so would cost him his job.

Van Meter was later fired during his job's probationary period. While in uniform, he had tried to claim his dog at the county dog shelter after it had gotten loose. He was fired for using his position as a deputy to avoid a citation; Van Meter disputes that finding.

A sergeant in the academy recently filed a report saying that Van Meter planned to use the video of his training to "falsely accuse Deputy Dishong of trying to hurt him during his training-academy class."

"What's there to make up? There's video," said Dan Klos, Van Meter's attorney.

The training academy did have problems.

Most other academies, including that of the Columbus police, record official videos of their training scenarios, but the sheriff's office did not.

Records also show confusion about who had authority over the academy. Chief Deputy Michael Flynn took over that responsibility after the investigation began in March. Flynn said a captain has been installed to oversee the academy, but he declined to comment further about the investigation.

The State Highway Patrol and Columbus police both stop training sessions when a cadet or trainer loses his or her headgear. The sheriff's office didn't. Hardesty lost his head protection before Dishong hit him in the face.

The sheriff's training academy didn't stop sessions when equipment came off because it could create bad habits for deputies when they are in a real fight, a source said. Deputies had been warned that the session would continue even if their headgear fell off.

"The stoppage can be seconds. It doesn't have to be a real lengthy stoppage," said Columbus police Cmdr. Bob Meader, who oversees the city's training academy.

The internal-affairs investigation said Hardesty's session should have been stopped.

The city training academy also hires a medic during training to treat injuries, Meader said. On test days, a doctor and a nurse are available. No medic was at the sheriff's training academy when Hardesty was hurt.

The state gives training academies broad guidelines, but it's up to the departments to develop specific policies, said Pappas, the union president.

Once the internal-affairs investigation is completed in the upcoming weeks, it will be presented to the state agency that oversees training guidelines. Then the state will determine whether any instructors should lose their certification, said Jill Del Greco, spokeswoman for the Ohio attorney general's office.

After the sheriff's office opened an investigation into the treatment of cadets, the state learned that trainees who passed the final scenario didn't complete the proper paperwork, Del Greco said. The internal-affairs investigation pointed to the incomplete paperwork as a reason to punish some of those involved in the incident.

State trainers readministered that session, this time recording the tests on video.

"They need to be able to show not only that they know how to do the different things, the handcuffing, takedowns, ground defense, but that they know when to do it and when it's appropriate," Del Greco said.

rrouan@dispatch.com

@RickRouan