By Amy Leigh Womack
The Macon Telegraph
MACON, Ga. — A federal trial is set to begin Monday for six current or former Macon State Prison employees accused in an alleged conspiracy to violate inmates’ civil rights.
Then-correctional officers Tyler Griffin, Christopher Hall, Ronald Lach Jr., Delton Rushin and Derrick Wimbush -- members of the prison’s Correctional Emergency Response Team -- allegedly assaulted inmates to punish them for having previously assaulted other prison guards, according to an indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
The indictment also names James Hinton, a deputy warden at the prison between Oct. 25, 2010, and Dec. 16, 2010, when the alleged four assaults occurred.
Two other officers indicted in the case, Kerry Bolden and Kadarius Thomas, have signed plea agreements describing their involvement.
Civil rights prosecutors from Washington, D.C., are set to try the case with help from local federal prosecutors, U.S. Attorney Michael Moore said.
The case is expected to last about three weeks with jury selection beginning Monday at the federal courthouse in Macon.
Moore said his office’s job is to protect everyone’s civil rights.
“Those protections and the right to be treated humanely don’t end at the jailhouse door,” he said.
The indictment, filed in April 2013, alleges in addition to participating in the assaults, officers watched the beatings and failed to prevent them from occurring.
Authorities also contend Hinton and the officers conspired to provide false and misleading information.
A Superior Court case involving Bolden, Hall, Lach, Rushin and Wimbush, along with officer Darren Douglas-Griffin, was presented to grand jurors in Macon County in August 2011, according to records obtained by The Telegraph. The prison is located in Oglethorpe, the seat of Macon County.
Grand jurors were asked to consider allegations of aggravated battery and that the officers violated their oaths of office in connection with an alleged Dec. 16, 2010, assault of one inmate. The group voted not to indict the officers, according to the records.
Hinton and Griffin still are employed by the Georgia Department of Corrections, said Gwendolyn Hogan, a department spokeswoman.
They have been suspended with pay, she said.
Griffin’s lawyer, Page Pate, said Griffin didn’t assault an inmate or lie about what happened. He was a CERT member for a short time but wasn’t at the prison when the last two incidents allegedly occurred.
“He is anxious to get the trial behind him so he can get back to work,” Pate said.
Wimbush, a former Jacksonville Jaguars football player, denies he violated any inmate’s civil rights, that he conspired with other guards or falsified records, said Franklin J. Hogue, his lawyer.
Rushin’s lawyer reserved comment, saying, “our sole focus is on preparing for trial.”
Hall’s lawyer declined to comment. Attorneys representing Hinton and Lach could not be reached for comment last week.
Bolden pleaded guilty in January to two conspiracy charges, admitting he conspired with other officers to assault inmates and cover up the assaults, according to his plea agreement.
When joining the prison’s CERT team, Bolden was told “certain things that happen with CERT stay with CERT,” according to the agreement.
Bolden and other officers beat a handcuffed inmate Dec. 14, 2010, to punish him for allegedly assaulting Hinton. They beat another inmate two days later for his alleged assault on an officer, according to the agreement.
Kadarius Thomas pleaded guilty last year to falsifying records. In his plea agreement, he admitted he saw another guard strike a handcuffed inmate in retaliation for the inmate allegedly assaulting a prison supervisor.
Thomas omitted information about the alleged unjustified use of force from his prison statement “to conceal and to cover up criminal conduct by CERT members,” according to the plea agreement.
Douglass-Griffin and two other former CERT members from the prison were indicted separately in connection with alleged incidents at the prison and have pleaded guilty in federal court.