ARKANSAS
A former jail administrator plead guilty to asking inmates to beat up another prisoner, which resulted in the victims suffering from serious injuries, according to officials.
After the beating, Randel Branscum, 56, the former jail administrator and chief deputy with the Stone County Sheriff’s Office in Mountain View, Arkansas, gave the two inmates who assaulted the prisoner tobacco, according to officials.
“Branscum abused his authority as a law enforcement officer by facilitating the assault of an individual in custody,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously pursue and hold accountable members of law enforcement who violate their oath and the civil rights of others.”
One of those inmates, Matthew McConniel, plead guilty today to the same charge as Branscum, while the other inmate, James Beckham, also pleaded guilty to the same civil rights offense on Feb 26.
During his guilty plea before Chief U.S. District Court Judge Brian S. Miller of Arkansas, Branscum admitted that while acting under his authority as jail administrator, he approached the inmates in their cell and asked them to “handle” the victim.
Branscum then forced the victim into the cell and allowed the victim to be beaten by Beckham and McConniel as instructed.
During the assault, the victim was repeatedly struck and his head was punched into a windowsill causing a laceration and other injuries. Branscum admitted that after the beating, he gave Beckham and McConniel tobacco.
According to a court documents, this is what happened according to a report on Arkansas Online.
- In the days leading up to Sept. 19, inmates in the felony pod had been flooding their cells, banging on doors and making a lot of noise, prompting Branscum to ask inmates in the misdemeanor pod if they could “handle” the problem for him.
- “I understood that Branscum would be bringing over those inmates. I also understood that Branscum had just given the other inmates in the misdemeanor pod and me permission to physically assault the inmates being transferred into our pod,” Beckham said in the plea agreement.
- He said Branscum and another jailer then took Jennings and Jeffries into the misdemeanor pod and Jennings, realizing he was about to be assaulted, tried to leave, prompting jailer Charlie Revell to point a stun gun at Jennings to keep him in the misdemeanor pod.
- Within seconds after Jennings entered the pod, he and McConniel began to fight, Beckham said, and “I punched Jennings multiple times, causing Jennings’ head to hit a windowsill or wall in the pod.”
- He said Jennings was the only person injured, and after the fight ended, Revell returned and removed Jennings and Jeffries from the misdemeanor pod, the Arkansas Online reported stated.
- “Later that day,” Beckham said, “Branscum took me into his office privately and assured me that there was no video of the beating. I also saw Matthew McConniel go into Branscum’s office for a private meeting,” Arkansas Online reported.
Branscum is expected to receive a sentence of 12 months and a day in federal prison. He will be sentenced at a later date.
The FBI investigated this case.