Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Correctional Officer Everette Brown Arrested for Hitting Inmate with Belt

A Concordia Parish Correctional Facility officer was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and malfeasance in office following a weekend incident in which he allegedly struck an inmate on the buttocks with his belt.

In a news release Monday, Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell said Officer Everette Brown, 44, of Vidalia was arrested and immediately terminated following an investigation of the alleged incident, which happened Saturday.

The inmate, who was in lockdown for disciplinary reasons, reportedly called Brown a derogatory name, to which Brown allegedly responded by opening the cell door, taking off his belt and striking the inmate, the release said.

The release said the inmate was later checked by CPCF medical personnel and found to have only minor bruises.

“It’s not the extent of the injury as much as it’s the fact that an officer responded like this,” Maxwell said. “It just won’t be tolerated. There absolutely will not be any mistreatment of inmates.”

Such a response is against both prison policy and common sense, Maxwell said.

Brown was employed at CPCF for approximately six months, but Maxwell said it would not have mattered if the officer had been employed for six hours or six years, because his alleged response was intolerable.”

“If you cannot handle someone calling you names, then you just don’t belong in this business, and you certainly cannot work for the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office and Correctional Facility,” Maxwell said. “It’s just plain wrong, and you don’t need to work here.”

“That’s why we’ve never had the reputation of this sort of thing, because we will not stand for it.”

Two investigators are assigned to the incident, and the release said the investigation is ongoing.

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