By Taylor Six
Lexington Herald-Leader
RICHMOND, K.Y. - A former jail deputy at the Madison County Detention Center was sentenced on Friday in federal court after he pleaded guilty to assaulting an inmate, according to court records.
Gregory A. Evans was sentenced in a Kentucky federal court to two years in prison for one count of deprivation of rights under color of law. Evans admitted he abused an inmate by strangling him, putting him in a chokehold, and punching him in April 2021. He also will be on supervised release for three years after he’s released and will have to pay $100 in court costs.
On April 9, 2021, Evans was on duty as deputy jailer and used unreasonable force on the inmate, Elton Bailey, by strangling and repeatedly punching him without legal justification, court documents state.
“(Evans) acted out of anger to punish (Bailey), both of which are not legitimate purposes for using force,” court documents stated.
After the assault, Bailey sued Evans, the jail, Jailer Steve Tussey, and the Madison County Fiscal Court in federal court.
In addition to this charge, Evans was also charged with falsification of records and making material false statements. He was charged with those offenses after he allegedly made false claims in an incident report and tried to obstruct an investigation. He’d been accused of omitting the fact that he strangled Bailey in an incident report and lying to the FBI in an interview.
These two counts were dismissed in court as part of the plea agreement..
Evans was fired from the detention center at the time of the incident.
The maximum sentence for the first count Evans pleaded guilty to could have been 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and three years supervised release, court documents state.
Judge Danny Reeves sentenced Evans.