On October 10, the Department of Justice announced a federal grand jury in London, Kentucky, filed a superseding indictment against three federal correctional officers for their respective roles in assaults against three federal inmates and alleged subsequent “cover-ups.”
A superseding indictment is an additional charge that is filed against a defendant after the original indictment. This usually happens when new evidence or information arises that warrants an additional charge. In this case, officers Samuel Patrick, Clinton Pauley, and Lieutenant Kevin Pearce were previously indicted in connection with the assaults of two federal inmates. Now, this superseding indictment brings additional charges for their assault of a third federal inmate and for their attempts to conceal the alleged crimes.
The superseding indictment alleges that on March 30, 2021, Patrick and Pauley, who were officers at the U.S. Penitentiary-Big Sandy, and Lieutenant Pearce, who was a supervisory officer, physically assaulted an inmate in violation of his constitutional rights. The indictment also alleges that the assault resulted in bodily injury and that the defendants attempted to conceal the assault by authoring fictitious reports of the incident. Additionally, Patrick and Pearse purportedly pressured a fellow correctional officer to draft an untruthful report and were subsequently charged with witness tampering. Lastly, Pauley is charged with making false statements to agents of the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and the FBI.
The maximum penalties for the charged crimes are 10 years of imprisonment for the assault offenses and 20 years of imprisonment for each of the witness tampering and false report offenses.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The attorneys at Chilivis Grubman represent clients of all types and sizes in connection with federal criminal investigations. If you need assistance with such a matter, please contact us today.