Two Canton, Ohio police officers walked into a Stark County courtroom facing years in prison for the restraint of Frank E. Tyson — a man who pleaded for air at least seven times while handcuffed face down on a bar floor. They walked out with misdemeanors.
Camden Burch and Beau Schoenegge, both 26, were scheduled to stand trial for felony reckless homicide in Tyson’s April 2024 restraint. Jury selection was set. Instead, at the last minute, both took plea deals. The felonies were dropped. No trial. No jury. Burch pleaded guilty to failure to report a crime — a fourth-degree misdemeanor with a maximum of 30 days in jail. Schoenegge pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty — a second-degree misdemeanor with a maximum of 90 days. Both agreed to resign from the Canton Police Department immediately. Sentencing is still ahead.
What the body cameras recorded
Tyson had been a free man for twelve days. He walked out of an Ohio prison on April 6, 2024, after serving 24 years for kidnapping and theft, and was still finding his footing in a world that had moved on without him when he crashed his car into a utility pole near Canton on April 18. Disoriented, he stumbled into a nearby AMVETS veterans hall.
That is where the body cameras pick up. The two officers forced Tyson to the ground, face down on the bar floor. One placed a knee on his upper back and neck area. Tyson shouted for someone to call the sheriff and said they were trying to hurt him. Then, pinned and handcuffed, he said he could not get air. Once. Twice. At least seven times, the footage shows him telling officers he was in distress. One officer told him to shut up.
Then Tyson went silent. For more than five minutes, the officers did not roll him over, did not check on him, and did not call for medical help. He was pronounced gone less than an hour later.
What the coroner found
The Stark County Coroner listed the cause as cardiopulmonary arrest in association with the physical altercation and prone restraint. Ischemic cardiovascular disease and acute intoxication by cocaine and ethanol were listed as contributing conditions.
Strip away the terminology and the finding is blunt: being pinned face down is what stopped his heart.
From felony charges to a quiet exit
In November 2024, a grand jury indicted both officers on third-degree reckless homicide — felony counts that carried years in prison. Both pleaded not guilty, and both spent the following year on paid administrative leave, collecting paychecks while trial dates slipped past and months turned into more than a year.
When the trial finally arrived, it lasted zero days. Tyson’s family sat in the courtroom holding his photograph. They wanted a trial and a public reckoning. What they got was two guilty pleas to failures of duty and a quiet exit.
What happens next
Sentencing for both men has not been scheduled, and the maximums — 30 days for Burch, 90 for Schoenegge — are ceilings, not outcomes. One caution belongs in any fair telling: the felony charges were dropped, and no jury ever weighed whether either man caused Tyson’s death. What the record shows is two guilty pleas to failures of duty — nothing more, and nothing less. This post will be updated when a sentencing date is set and any sentences are handed down.
If five minutes of silence over a man pleading for air adds up to ninety days, what exactly is the line for a felony?
Sources
NBC News · CBS News · CNN · News5 Cleveland · Cleveland.com · Canton Rep · WKYC · WYSU · Ideastream · WHBC
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