DOC officers plead guilty in inmate assault
Two former Florida Department of Corrections officers indicted on charges of violating the civil rights of an inmate at a Chipley prison last year pleaded guilty in federal court.
William F. Finch, 35, of Wauseau and 24-year-old Dalton E. Riley of Bethlehem came before a federal judge in Panama City on Thursday and pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the civil rights of an inmate just as their co-defendant Robert L. Miller, 48, did April 1, according to a news release from U.S Attorney Pamela Marsh's office.
The indictment alleges that the corrections officers assaulted inmate Jeremiah Tatum without justification, causing bodily harm. The men, in their pleas, admitted to the August 2014 assault at the North West Florida Reception Center in Chipley.
The officers were involved in a take down of Tatum in along with three other officers including Capt. James Kirkland, who reportedly committed suicide in December after being arrested two months earlier.
James F. Perkins, 39, and 32-year-old Christopher B. Christmas will face a federal jury June 8, according to court records.
Tatum was serving a seven-year sentence for cocaine trafficking, when he was violently slammed to the ground while being transported to a shower after corrections officers used a chemical agent on him, court records say.
Video evidence of the event captured Tatum, who was in hand, ankle and leg restraints, being thrown to the ground.
The video also shows 31-year-old Tatum being slammed face first onto a concrete floor by sergeants Finch and Riley. Perkins jumped on the back of Tatum's legs and then pressed the inmate's body toward the ground using his hands.
The indictment claims that Finch falsified all the reports to say the take down was in response to the inmate spitting in Kirkland's face. The captain directed the other corrections officers to commit the assault and then to falsify reports to conceal it.
A DOC Inspector General's report found that Kirkland lied about the incident as a pretext to the assault. All five defendants were fired following the incident.
Finch and Riley will be sentenced July 1 and Miller is expected to receive his sentence June 17.