LOUISIANA
A federal grand jury indicted three former supervisory prison guards at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, for beating a handcuffed and shackled inmate, according to officials.
The grand jury also indicted the defendants for conspiring to cover up their misconduct by falsifying official records, committing perjury and tampering with witnesses as well as physical evidence, officials said.
According to the indictment, former Major Daniel Davis, 40, of Loranger, Louisiana; former Captain John Sanders, 31, of Marksville, Louisiana; and former Captain James Savoy, 38, of Marksville, beat an inmate, who suffered bodily injury.
The defendants then created a false cover story, asserting that they had used reasonable force to get the inmate under control after he had gotten out of his cell and fought with officers.
To corroborate that false cover story, members of the conspiracy instructed subordinates to clean up the inmate’s blood before internal investigators could document it, falsified official prison reports and records, ordered subordinates to lie to internal affairs investigators and lied under oath in a federal civil proceeding arising out of the incident.
A fourth former supervisory correctional officer, Captain Scotty Kennedy, 48, of Beebe, Arkansas, plead guilty on Tuesday for his role in the incident.
The defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
