By Lynn Tramonte
Jun 5 2026: Last Tuesday, Chief Dwyer of the Butler County Jail gave a defensive rant at the end of the Commissioners’ meeting. Angry about the civil rights lawsuits piling up, and other criticisms of the way he and Sheriff Jones run their jail, Dwyer attacked the credibility and character of pretty much every opponent he could remember.
In our experience, calling people “liars” and “criminals” is exactly how bad cops behave when the public is a little too close to holding them accountable. But because our credibility is our currency, and we’ve been here before battling the Morrow County Sheriff, we prepared a little fact sheet to help Chief Dwyer, Butler County Commissioners, and anyone else who needs to know understand WHO has civil rights, HOW civil rights lawyers work, WHO can be put in “civil” immigration jail, and WHY it’s an evil policy.
Said Lynn Tramonte, Executive Director of the Ohio Immigrant Alliance, “Chief Dwyer is knee-deep in the cover-up of a number of violent attacks by guards in the Butler County Jail. He oversaw sham investigations, failing to interview victims and review medical records. He may even have allowed investigators to lie about the hospital’s conclusion in the Tenelanda case. Meanwhile, Dwyer is attempting to keep the Commissioners onside, because he knows the public is losing faith. But he’s doing so through lies and manipulation.
“As advocates for human rights and immigrants, we have always relied on the truth, because our credibility is our currency. We don’t have money; we only have our integrity. It took ten months to prepare the Tenelanda case because the lawyers had to do their due diligence. Lawyers have been fighting the Bayong and Benty cases for six years, without receiving a dime, because that’s how civil rights lawyers work. They don’t get paid unless they win, and they don’t take cases unless they have merit.
“The jail, however, has every incentive to lie, and that’s exactly what they are doing. Sheriff Jones thought he was untouchable until he lost his ICE contract in 2021. Everyone knows he’s a liability when it comes to speaking about all of these pending cases, so they sent Chief Dwyer to be his public face. But Dwyer isn’t doing any better. Butler County taxpayers deserve transparency, and they deserve law enforcement officers who follow the law. Everyone has human and civil rights, including immigrants and citizens in the Butler County Jail. We will keep bringing cases to federal court until the jail and County leadership finally understand this, and stop letting the Sheriff do whatever he wants.”
Unpacking Chief Dwyer’s False Claims, One By One
When hundreds of people who don’t know each other and didn’t cross paths in jail say the same things, over and over again, the truth is pretty easy to understand.
Click https://ohioimmigrant.org/s/Criminal-History-of-Immigrants-Detained-for-ICE-in-Ohio-and-Butler-County.pdf for more data on Butler County and https://ohioimmigrant.org/blog/ice-activity-report-2026 for data on Butler and the entire state.
Learn about the successful effort to end the contract at this jail during the first Trump administration, and how immigrants, lawyers, and advocates are working to repeat the victory today, https://ohioimmigrant.org/blog/2026/4/20/how-to-end-ice-jail-in-ohio.
To read more about these lawsuits, including the complaints, click https://ohioimmigrant.org/blog/2026/5/11/new-lawsuit-butler-county-jail-assault. Additional case documents, including depositions and testimony, are available with an account on https://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/pscof/login.xhtml.