Former County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Sentenced for Assaulting Detainee with a Taser

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department announced today that former Bryan County, Oklahoma Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Kevin Bennett Holt, 48, from Achille, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 18 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, followed by 24 months of supervised release, for using a Taser to assault a detainee inside of the Bryan County Jail in Durant, Oklahoma, in violation of the victim’s civil rights.

The defendant pleaded guilty on May 1, 2012. During the plea hearing and in the plea documents, Holt admitted that he intentionally used unreasonable force on a detainee when he electronically shocked the detainee by using a Taser device while the detainee was strapped into a restraint chair. The defendant also admitted that his unlawful Taser deployment injured the victim.

“Excessive force by officers sworn to respect and uphold the law undermines our criminal justice system,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The federal government is committed to prosecuting officers who abuse the authority entrusted to them.”

This case was investigated by the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Nicole Lee Ndumele of the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Dean Burris from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.