A former lieutenant at the Roxbury Correctional Institution (RCI) in Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced by a federal court to 36 months in prison for obstruction of justice in connection with his involvement in a series of assaults against an inmate at the facility. He pleaded guilty to a charge of destruction of records. According to court documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, he acknowledged that he intentionally used a magnetic device to erase incriminating surveillance video footage related to the officers' assaults of the inmate. Officers from three different shifts assaulted Davis in March 2008, in retaliation for a prior incident in which he struck an officer. To date, 16 current or former officers at the facility were convicted in connection with the series of assaults that the prisoner suffered on March 8 through 9, 2008. One former officer still awaits sentencing. U.S. v. Stigile, #1:13-cr-00084, U.S. Dist. Ct. (D. Maryland).
     A former federal corrections officer was sentenced to 48 months in prison and three years of supervised release on criminal charges that he arranged for prisoners to send money through the mail or via Western Union, to co-conspirators outside the prison. That money was then paid to the officer as bribes in exchange for smuggling cigarettes, marijuana, and other contraband into a federal corrections center. A co-conspirator was sentenced to two years probation. U.S. v. Hinnant, #5:11-cr-00354, U.S. Dist. Ct. (E.D.N.C. Aug. 15, 2012).
     A correctional officer applied a "sleeper hold" to a pre-trial detainee, restrained in handcuffs and shackles, who continued to resist. The officer allegedly rendered the detainee unconscious using the hold and failed to tell a nurse at the jail that he was "gurgling," and then lying silent and motionless, and needed medical attention. The officer was convicted of depriving the detainee of his rights and of obstructing a federal investigation into the detainee's subsequent death by falsifying documents. The evidence was sufficient to prove that the officer used force to put the detainee into a position requiring medical attention, and then acted with deliberate indifference towards his serious medical needs. United States v. Gray, #11-3143, 2012 U.S. App. Lexis 18528, 2012 Fed App. 0297P (6th Cir.).
     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]