A Kentucky prison sergeant was given seven years in prison on Tuesday for not stopping the beating of a handcuffed and shackled inmate and then lying to police to hide what happened.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky said in a news release that Eric L. Nantell, 48, will be on supervised release for two years after his release from jail.
Six years after the bad attack in the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, the person was sentenced. In July 2018, the prisoner was beaten in a shower stall while lying face down in handcuffs and leg shackles. Officials say he was not aggressive.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Nantell was watching over a normal prisoner escort process when officers Randall Dennis and James Benish attacked him. Mantell was a sergeant at the prison. Jeffery Havens, a new police officer, joined them in the attack.
It says in the news release that Nantell stood at the shower door and watched as the cops hit and punched the prisoner in the back and head. He stood there and watched the beating for more than 20 seconds before leaving as the police kept hitting him.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Nantell and other officers concocted a “cover-up scheme to hide the truth” after the inmate reported the assault and lied to state detectives, prison supervisors, and an FBI agent.
Officials from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement, “This plan to hide what happened did not work.”
“The Justice Department will continue to hold accountable law enforcement officials who engage in misconduct at every level, including those who carry out unlawful assaults, those who fail to intervene to stop them, and those who try to cover up the violations,” Clarke said.
The Eastern District of Kentucky’s U.S. Attorney, Carlton S. Shier IV, called Nantell’s acts “disgraceful.”
“Fortunately, he now faces the consequences of his utter betrayal of responsibility and callous attempts to undermine genuine law enforcement,” he wrote in a statement.
Mantell was charged with two counts of obstructing justice for lying to FBI agents and two counts of obstructing justice for state detectives. After a four-day hearing in February, a federal jury found him guilty. His lawyer wouldn’t say anything on Wednesday.
The prisoners Dennis, Benish, and Havens all pleaded guilty and were given sentences of 60, 27, and 15 months in jail, respectively. Dennis and Benish worked in the prison’s internal affairs department. After their jail terms, they were each given two years of supervised release.
Prison officers Nathan Cantrell and Derek Mays, as well as Randy Nickell, who used to be a supervisor, pleaded guilty to charges linked to their part in the cover-up. They were each given a one-month jail sentence followed by two years of being watched while they were free. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Nickell and Cantrell were also given five more months of being locked up at home.
Source: NBC News
