Former Mississippi Corrections Officer Pleads Guilty to Orchestrating Assault on Inmate

Kenny McLaughlin, 35, a corrections officer at the Stone County Regional Facility in Stone County, Mississippi, pleaded guilty today in federal court to ordering the beating of an inmate at the detention facility.

According to court documents filed in connection with his guilty plea, on May 12, 2008, McLaughlin, while working as a corrections officer, ordered an inmate to arrange an unwarranted assault on another inmate. As a result of McLaughlin’s order, the victim was assaulted by two fellow inmates in the shower area of the cellblock. McLaughlin was aware of the assault as it happened but did not notify any other officer or medical personnel of the assault. The victim suffered fractured ribs, cuts to his face and bruises to his chest.

“Law enforcement officers do not have the right to order that an individual, whether incarcerated or not, be beaten by others,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy L. Austin, Jr. of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department is committed to prosecuting law enforcement officers who violate the constitutional rights of individuals in their custody.”

The statutory maximum sentence for this offense is 10 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for June 26, 2013.

This case was investigated by the Gulfport Resident Agency of the Jackson, Mississippi Division of the FBI and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda R. Haynes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi and Trial Attorney Dana Mulhauser of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.