Previous Alabama Department of Corrections Lieutenant Billed with Federal Civil Legal rights Crimes for Applying Too much Pressure on Inmates and with Obstruction Offenses | OPA

A federal grand jury returned a four-rely indictment charging a previous Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) lieutenant with use of too much force and two obstruction offenses.

In accordance to the indictment, Lieutenant Mohammad Shahid Jenkins utilised excessive pressure on two inmates – V.R. and D.H. – at ADOC’s Donaldson Correctional Facility. The indictment further prices Jenkins with two obstruction offenses related to his alleged too much power on just one of the inmates.

Specially, depend a person of the indictment alleges that on Feb. 16, 2022, Jenkins willfully deprived inmate V.R. of his right to be cost-free from excessive power by kicking him, hitting him, spraying him with chemical spray, placing him with a can of chemical spray and placing him with a shoe. Count two of the indictment alleges that, on Nov. 29, 2021, Jenkins willfully deprived inmate D.H. of his ideal to be totally free from abnormal power by spraying him with chemical spray many times, hanging him with a can of chemical spray and hitting him. Counts one particular and two further more allege that inmates V.R. and D.H. just about every suffered bodily injury as a consequence of Jenkins’s steps, and that Jenkins utilized hazardous weapons — chemical spray and the chemical spray can — in both of those assaults.

Count three alleges that, pursuing the Feb. 16, 2022, assault, Jenkins knowingly falsified an ADOC incident report about the party. Finally, rely four alleges that, when ADOC and FBI agents later on interviewed Jenkins about his use of force on V.R., Jenkins engaged in misleading carry out toward the agents. 

If convicted, Jenkins faces a maximum sentence of 10 several years in prison on each abnormal force demand and 20 decades in jail on each obstruction demand. He also faces up to three many years of supervised launch and a high-quality of up to $250,000.

Assistant Attorney Normal Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Lawyer Prim F. Escalona for the Northern District of Alabama and Special Agent in Demand Carlton L. Peeples of the FBI Birmingham Area Business designed the announcement.

The FBI Birmingham Industry Workplace investigated the scenario with the support of ADOC’s Regulation Enforcement Products and services Division. 

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Martin for the Northern District of Alabama and Demo Attorneys Anna Gotfryd and David Reese of the Civil Legal rights Division’s Prison Part are prosecuting the situation.

An indictment is merely an allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent till established responsible further than a fair doubt in a courtroom of legislation.