Former Prince George’s County Correctional Officer Sentenced to 24 Months for Obstruction of Justice

WASHINGTON—U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Anthony McIntosh, a former correctional officer at the Prince George’s County Detention Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to 24 months in prison for obstruction of justice. McIntosh had entered a guilty plea on January 4, 2013, at which time he admitted that he had obstructed justice by providing false information about the circumstances surrounding the in-custody death of Ronnie White. At the time of his death on June 29, 2008, White was being detained on charges related to the death two days earlier of a Prince George’s County police officer.

McIntosh, 49, of Brooklyn, New York, admitted during his guilty plea that he had provided false information in a witness statement he submitted to a police detective investigating White’s in-custody death. McIntosh admitted that he omitted from his witness statement material information that was truthful and included information that he knew was false. Specifically, McIntosh claimed in the false witness statement that another officer had discovered White unresponsive in his single-occupant cell and had then summoned McIntosh to the cell. During his guilty plea, McIntosh admitted that, in actuality, he had been the first correctional officer to find White unresponsive in the cell and that he had failed to call a medical emergency signal as required by the Department of Corrections. McIntosh also admitted that he included in his statement the false claims that he never moved Ronnie White’s body and that he “didn’t know what was going on” when his partner told him that White appeared to be unresponsive.

“Instead of lawfully carrying out his duties as a correctional officer, Mr. McIntosh used his official position to obstruct the search for the truth regarding the in-custody death of a pretrial detainee,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Roy L. Austin, Jr. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute officers who cross the line and engage in criminal misconduct.”

The case was investigated by the Baltimore Division of the FBI and was prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Forrest Christian and Trial Attorney Ali Ahmad of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland.