Four Former Corrections Officers Indicted for Civil Rights Violations

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-former-corrections-officers-indicted-civil-rights-violations

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, April 21, 2017

Four Former Corrections Officers Indicted for Civil Rights Violations

Former Officers Conspired to Assault Inmate at Missouri Detention Center

The Department of Justice announced today that four former corrections officers at the Jackson County Detention Center (“JCDC”) have been indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in a conspiracy to physically assault an inmate in violation of his Constitutional protection against unreasonable force. Travis Hewitt, 27, Dakota Pearce, 24, Terrance Dooley, Jr., 36, and Jen-I Pulos, 36, all of Kansas City, Missouri, were charged in a four-count indictment returned under seal by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Missouri, on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. The indictment was unsealed and made public today upon the arrests and initial court appearances of Hewitt and Pulos.
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According to the indictment, Hewitt and Pearce served as acting sergeants at the JCDC. Dooley and Pulos served as members of the Disturbance Control Team, which is responsible for intervening in inmate altercations and neutralizing threats posed by inmates. The indictment charges in Counts One and Two that on July 4, 2015, Hewitt, Pearce, Dooley and Pulos conspired to and did assault “J.R.,” an inmate awaiting resolution of allegations that he violated probation, in retaliation for a prior altercation that J.R. had with another corrections officer. According to the indictment, the defendants, defying the orders of a superior officer, forcibly removed J.R. from his cell in the Medical Housing Unit and brought him to another holding cell down the hall in order to facilitate their assault on him. There, as the indictment charges, all four defendants struck, punched and otherwise assaulted J.R., who was handcuffed, shackled, confined to a cell, suffering from disorientation and confusion, and not posing a threat to anyone. The indictment further alleges that the defendants ensured their actions would go undetected by having one of them serve as a lookout, and by sending other nearby corrections officers to another part of the JCDC so those corrections officers would not witness the assault.

In addition to the conspiracy and the assault in the holding cell, Count Three charges Hewitt and Pearce with a separate assault on J.R., when they allegedly struck and punched J.R. while J.R. was restrained and not posing a physical threat to anyone. Related to that assault, Count Four charges Hewitt with falsifying his departmental report with the intent to impede or obstruct the federal investigation. The indictment alleges that Hewitt falsely wrote that J.R. bit his right hand, when in fact, Hewitt knew that he injured his hand by striking and punching J.R. about the head and face while J.R. was restrained and not posing a physical threat to anyone.
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