Feds charge state employee for covering up brutal beatings!

[MDCivilServant]

State correctional officers need to raise their standards. Maryland should require all new correctional officers to pass polygraphs. Many counties require detention center employees to pass polygraphs so should the state!

http://blogs.citypaper.com/index.php...ting-feds-say/

Accord*ing to the crim*i*nal infor*ma*tion, on March 9, 2008, Lohr “opened the door to inmate KD’s cell to allow other cor*rec*tional offi*cers to assault inmate KD in retal*i*a*tion” for “a pre*vi*ous attack on an offi*cer.” Lohr “watched from the cell door as cor*rec*tional offi*cers entered the cell and beat inmate KD,” strik*ing him “on his head, face, and body with fists and kicks.” Start*ing on the day of the beat*ing, and up until Nov. 2012, Lohr and “other known RCI cor*rec*tional offi*cers and super*vi*sors” con*spired to obstruct jus*tice and destroy evi*dence about the assault, the doc*u*ment says, by pro*vid*ing inves*ti*ga*tors with “false and mis*lead*ing infor*ma*tion” and “cover[ing] up other infor*ma*tion in order to ensure their roles … would not be dis*cov*ered” so that they would be “shielded from liability.”

[aliensquirl]

What's with all the asterists?

[LadyHollman]

What's with all the asterists?

I think it some kind of cryptic code.

[demopublican]

The story from the link reads normally.

AfterLohr and the oth*ers real*ized there would be an inves*ti*ga*tion, they met and “agreed to pro*vide inves*ti*ga*tors with false infor*ma*tion to cover up the assault,” the doc*u*ment says, adding that “at one meet*ing, Offi*cer TH said the group should tell inves*ti*ga*tors that they did not see, hear, or do any*thing.” Imme*di*ately after the assault, the doc*u*ment con*tin*ues, Lohr “directed oth*ers to clean up the blood in inmate KD’s cell rather than to pre*serve the blood as evi*dence.” Hav*ing located sur*veil*lance tapes that recorded the assault, “super*vi*sor ES announced that ‘he would take care of’ the issue, and then waved what appeared to be a mag*net over sev*eral sur*veil*lance tapes in order to erase the footage” and “then hid the mag*netic device in the drop-ceiling,” the doc*u*ment explains. In addi*tion, “a super*vi*sor – who pre*vi*ously had ordered an assault on inmate KD – instructed defen*dant Lohr and offi*cer TH not to write any reports about inmate KD and his injuries,” accord*ing to the document.

But when quoted the * show up. Copyright protection?

Anyway, the story is interesting. I have no knowledge of this world. How common place are these guard beatings?

[jessup270]

If a MD citizen ever visited the interior sections of a typical MD prison, that are off limits to the public, they would understand why it is hard to get quality people to be correctional officers.

When the most heinous, violent criminals are incarcerated, most citizens forget about the offender after the trial.

Correctional officers have put be in the presence of these dangerous parasites 24 hours a day, for 20 or 30 years.

After personally seeing what these officers endure, these people should be paid on a par with MD State Police or even higher.

Highly educated, motivated people, usually want nothing to do with this job.

[ybnormal]

If a MD citizen ever visited the interior sections of a typical MD prison, that are off limits to the public, they would understand why it is hard to get quality people to be correctional officers.

When the most heinous, violent criminals are incarcerated, most citizens forget about the offender after the trial.

Correctional officers have put be in the presence of these dangerous parasites 24 hours a day, for 20 or 30 years.

After personally seeing what these officers endure, these people should be paid on a par with MD State Police or even higher.

Highly educated, motivated people, usually want nothing to do with this job.

True, but, as with any job, these officers knew that going in and therefore should be held accountable. Foxes watching the chicken coop is unacceptable.

[MDCivilServant]

I my life I thought a CODE RED was just a figment of Hollywood's imagination.

I wonder if the trial will look like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2F4VcBmeo

[demopublican]

If a MD citizen ever visited the interior sections of a typical MD prison, that are off limits to the public, they would understand why it is hard to get quality people to be correctional officers.

When the most heinous, violent criminals are incarcerated, most citizens forget about the offender after the trial.

Correctional officers have put be in the presence of these dangerous parasites 24 hours a day, for 20 or 30 years.

After personally seeing what these officers endure, these people should be paid on a par with MD State Police or even higher.

Highly educated, motivated people, usually want nothing to do with this job.

What kind of physical beatings should these hard working people be allowed to administer?

[aliensquirl]

what kind of physical beatings should these hard working people be allowed to administer?

none!

[OldBay]

True, but, as with any job, these officers knew that going in and therefore should be held accountable. Foxes watching the chicken coop is unacceptable.

None will argue against holding employees accountable. But state CO jobs are the CO jobs of last resort. Until the state can match the pay, benefits, and working conditions for county and fed CO - which is not going to happen, the state will continue to attract the lowest denomination and experience high turnover. Considering all, I'm surprised there are not far more such problems with state correctional facilities.

[demopublican]

None will argue against holding employees accountable. But state CO jobs are the CO jobs of last resort. Until the state can match the pay, benefits, and working conditions for county and fed CO - which is not going to happen, the state will continue to attract the lowest denomination and experience high turnover. Considering all, I'm surprised there are not far more such problems with state correctional facilities.

I bet they did this because their contributions to their pensions were too high.

[OldBay]

I bet they did this because their contributions to their pensions were too high.

The employer of last resort should be expected to have more problems. Is that an unreasonable assumption? The total package - pay, benefits (including pensions and health care) and working conditions (hours and duties), are all better at the county and fed level. So, who wants one of these state CO jobs when better ones are available?

[demopublican]

The employer of last resort should be expected to have more problems. Is that an unreasonable assumption? The total package - pay, benefits (including pensions and health care) and working conditions (hours and duties), are all better at the county and fed level. So, who wants one of these state CO jobs when better ones are available?

Same with teaching. You have told us many times what a ripoff it is and how abused and overworked they are. Must be the dregs of society.

[OldBay]

Same with teaching. You have told us many times what a ripoff it is and how abused and overworked they are. Must be the dregs of society.

I don't know why you need to turn every post into some personal attack and attempt to form juvenile - and false, conclusions about another poster's posts. IMO, public school teachers have fewer options if they wish to continue to teach than do COs. Of course, public school teachers who want better, leave and find better jobs. You are the only one here who would call dedicated teachers "dregs of society" and if you were capable of any shame at all, crabsnbeer, you would be ashamed of yourself.

I have not excused this CO behavior, nor argued against prosecution, but merely provided some possible explanation - which is not the same thing at all.

[demopublican]

Hey Bub, I just call them like a see them. You have said repeatedly that teachers are underpaid, have poor working conditions, and a terrible pension system.
I simply applied your logic one step further to state that obviously only people with not other employment options (that would be the dregs of society) would stay under such conditions.

It is MY opinion that they are well compensated for what they do and receive an appropriate support package.

[demopublican]

I am glad that you agree that teachers are well enough compensated to attract top talent.

[MDCivilServant]

It appears that there is a culture that sanctions beatings in Maryland prisons. Why has this been tolerated.

1. Should Maryland Public Safety Secretary Gary Maynard have known?
2. If not, why didn't he know?
3. Will any of Maryland's public safety bureaucrats lose their jobs or resign in shame?

http://citypaper.com/news/and-the-be...s-on-1.1436732

Two of the corrections officers accused by state prosecutors in the Kenneth Davis beating—Tyson Hinkle and Reginald Martin—currently are defendants in a federal lawsuit brought in 2007 by another inmate, Heru Hannibal Segu, who claims to have been unconstitutionally victimized by officer brutality at RCI. Another federal lawsuit currently headed for settlement, brought in 2008 by inmate Benjamin Davis, also alleges illegal violence at the hands of RCI corrections officers about six months after Kenneth Davis was beaten.

“We cannot and will not tolerate violence or unnecessary force committed by staff,” DPSCS’ Vernarelli writes in an email, “just as we won’t tolerate it committed against staff by inmates.”