MARYLAND – Sixteen former corrections officers from a Maryland state prison have now been convicted for their roles in three brutal assaults against an inmate and coordinated efforts to cover up the assaults, according to federal officials.
The latest conviction came Thursday when a jury found James Kalbflesh, a former correctional officer at the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown, Md., guilty of three civil rights and conspiracy counts related to his participation in the beating of the inmate in 2008 and the subsequent cover-up, according to officials.
A second defendant, Lt. Jason Weicht, was acquitted on one charge of conspiring to help cover up the assault.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Jocelyn Samuels for the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice said: “These officers betrayed the public trust by using their official positions to commit violent civil rights abuses and then to try to hide what they had done. The Department of Justice will continue to prosecute vigorously law enforcement officers who use their power to violate federal law.”
The officers beat the inmate because of his prior misconduct, officials said.
In related cases, 12 former RCI officers have pleaded guilty to various charges, and one has been convicted by a jury, in connection with a series of three separate beatings of the same inmate that occurred over the course of three consecutive shifts at the prison, and the cover-up that followed. Two other former RCI officers involved in the assaults pleaded guilty in state court.
The FBI investigated these cases.