In a criminal prosecution of correctional officers for alleged conspiracy and deprivation of prisoner's constitutional rights, the prosecution was not required to show that any individual prisoner suffered a certain level of, or type of, injury to show excessive use of force in violation of the Eighth Amendment and 18 U.S.C. Sec. 242. Convictions of officers upheld. U.S. v. Lavallee, No. 03-1515, 439 F.3d 670 (10th Cir. 2006) [N/R]
     Prison guard was properly convicted of separate counts of unlawful sexual activity with an inmate on the basis of two incidents occurring on different days. The trial court's decision not to group the two incidents together in one count for sentencing purposes was proper. U.S. v. Vasquez, No. 03-1763, 2004 U.S. App. Lexis 23480 (2nd Cir. 2004). [N/R]
     Federal appeals court upholds enhanced 46-month sentence imposed on correctional officer who pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the civil rights of jail detainees he was supervising, based on unusual vulnerability of prisoner with Tourette's syndrome to assault. The officer failed to show reversible error in the trial court's finding that he had knowledge of the prisoner's unusual vulnerability of Tourette's syndrome, and the trial court noted that, prior to the alleged beating of the prisoner, either the defendant or another officer was heard yelling, "we'll beat the Tourette's out of you." United States v. Donnelly, #03-2022, 370 F.3d 87 (1st Cir. 2004). [N/R]
     Overturning dismissal of criminal charges against corrections officer on three counts of institutional sexual assault under 18 Pa. C.S.A. Sec. 3124.2 (prohibiting sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse or indecent conduct with an inmate by a corrections employee), Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejects arguments that the statute was void for vagueness, overbroad, or violated due process. Commonwealth v. Mayfield, 832 A.2d 418 (Pa. 2003). [N/R]
     The Justice Department announced that Kevin Clark, a former Sergeant at the Dougherty County Jail in Albany, Georgia, was sentenced to six months imprisonment for obstructing justice in connection with a civil rights offense committed at the Dougherty County Jail. [N/R]
     Former Wilson County Tennessee correctional officer pleads guilty to criminal charges related to an ongoing federal criminal civil rights investigation into allegations of excessive force and obstruction of justice at the Wilson County Jail in Lebanon, Tennessee. [N/R]
     Former employee of a Tennessee state mental facility sentenced to 31 months in prison for repeatedly beating and physically abusing a patient with severe mental retardation. [N/R]