BATON ROUGE, LA
A former prison guard supervisor at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana plead guilty to his involvement in the beating of a shackled inmate, trying to cover up the incident and lying to investigators about what happened, officials said.
Authorities stated that John Sanders, 30, of Marksville, Louisiana, admitted during his plea hearing the following:
- He punched the inmate repeatedly in the head in retaliation for an earlier incident
- He witnessed other officers use excessive force against the inmate and failed to intervene
- He conspired with other officers to cover up the beating by engaging in a variety of obstructive acts
- He personally falsified official prison records in order to cover up the beating.
- Scotty Kennedy, 48, of Beebe, Arkansas, pled guilty in November 2016 for his role in the beating and cover up.
Two co-defendants, Daniel Davis and James Savoy, remain scheduled for trial in January, according to authorities.
Acting U.S. Attorney Corey Amundson stated, “Our office remains committed to prosecuting violations of the federal criminal civil rights laws whenever sufficient evidence exists to do so. No one is above the law.”
“Another former correctional supervisor has admitted abusing a person in state custody and then lying to cover up his on-duty misconduct,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore of the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute correctional officers who use their official position to commit and to cover up violations of federal criminal law.”
According to the indictment, former Major Daniel Davis, 41, of Loranger, Louisiana; former Captain John Sanders, of Marksville, Louisiana; and former Captain James Savoy, 39, 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, according to officials.
A fourth former supervisory correctional officer, Captain Scotty Kennedy, 48, of Beebe, Arkansas, plead guilty for his role in the incident.
The defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.