Three former Mississippi Department of Corrections officials have been sentenced for excessive force against an inmate with dangerous weapons.
On July 11, 2019, at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, corrections officers Jessica Hill and LaToya Richardson, as well as case manager Nicole Moore assaulted a defenseless inmate, L.C., while the inmate was in the fetal position and not resisting in any fashion.
Hill struck L.C. several times with a canister and then repeatedly punched her in the head. Richardson kicked the inmate four times in the head and upper torso, and Moore kicked L.C. one time in the back of the head. Hill continued to strike L.C., who was still lying on the ground in the fetal position until fellow prison staff intervened to stop Hill’s assault.
All three defendants previously pleaded guilty to their respective roles in assaulting L.C., in violation of the inmate’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
Hill is sentenced to three years and one month in prison, two years of supervised release, and a $1,500 fine. Richardson is sentenced to three years and one month in prison, two years of supervised release, and a $1,500 fine. Moore is sentenced to two years in prison, two years of supervised release, and a $1,500 fine.
“These defendants are being held accountable for their criminal abuse of their authority by using excessive force against an inmate who was not resisting them,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said. “The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting prison officials who violate the law and their oaths by subjecting inmates in their custody to cruel and unusual punishment.”
The FBI Jackson Field Office investigated the case. Trial Attorney Eric Peffley of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda Haynes for the Southern District of Mississippi prosecuted the case.
