Lawsuit: Prison guards deleted beating video

Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Anson County has been engulfed in controversy recently, with inmates alleging abuse and misconduct by guards.


http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/09/3654847/lawsuit-prison-guards-deleted.html

Lanesboro Correctional Institution in Anson County has been engulfed in controversy recently, with inmates alleging abuse and misconduct by guards.

By Ames Alexander
aalexander@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Friday, Nov. 09, 2012

A N.C. inmate has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that corrections officers at an Anson County prison cracked his skull with a baton and then destroyed a surveillance video that showed the assault.

In a lawsuit filed earlier this week, inmate Kevin Brower contended that the assault happened during a prison riot on Nov. 10, 2009, after he tried to protect a fellow inmate from excessive force by corrections officers.

Brower, who is serving a 45-year prison term for second-degree murder, stated that officers at Lanesboro Correctional Institution handcuffed him face down on the floor. Then, he alleged, unknown officers kicked him in the face, ribs and hips until he “heard a crack and everything went silent.”

The inmate, who was later treated for a hairline skull fracture and a three-inch laceration, argued that officers used excessive force.

Brower also alleged that a corrections officer deleted a surveillance video that showed a white officer striking him in the back of the skull with a baton.

In a separate lawsuit related to the same melee, inmate Lorenzo Ingram contends that a Lanesboro corrections officer also used excessive force in an assault against him.

That suit, filed last week, alleges that Ingram was trying to protect a fellow inmate when an officer held him off the ground by his dreadlocks and then repeatedly punched him in the face and head.

A surveillance video in that case shows the officer striking Ingram in the head 21 times, the lawsuit says. Ingram is in prison for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

The officer accused in that case resigned his prison job last year.

Located in Polkton, about 45 miles east of Charlotte, Lanesboro has repeatedly drawn media scrutiny following inmate deaths and allegations of improper conduct by corrections officers.

In September, a prison brawl led to the death of a convicted murderer. And in 2009, an inmate was repeatedly pepper sprayed after requesting medical help.

State officials replaced top officials at the prison after the Observer’s reports about the pepper spray incident.

Five officers hurt in riot

Officials for the state prison system did not respond to the most recent allegations concerning inmate beatings and deleted video footage.

“The Dept. of Public Safety has just received these lawsuits and they are under review,” agency spokesman Keith Acree wrote in an email. “The agency typically does not comment on matters that are under litigation.”

Previously, state officials said that inmates seriously assaulted a number of corrections officers in the melee. Four inmates were charged, while five staff had to be treated at outside medical facilities, officials said.

The corrections officers accused in the alleged beatings and cover-up could not be reached Friday. Kory Dalrymple, one of the defendants accused of conspiring to delete video footage, declined to comment. Dalrymple, a former assistant superintendent at Lanesboro, now works a similar job at nearby Brown Creek Correctional Institution.

Last year, authorities charged Richard Neely, the former administrator at Lanesboro, with obstruction of justice, claiming he ordered the destruction of video footage shot during the disturbance.

An assistant to District Attorney Reece Saunders, who covers Anson County, said the charges against Neely were dismissed in June. She declined to say why.

Brower’s lawsuit alleges that Dalrymple and two corrections officers conspired to destroy all surveillance video showing white officers using excessive force against black inmates. He contends that the officers made unfounded allegations against Neely to divert attention from their actions.

“Psychological torture”

Following the incident, Brower filed a grievance alleging that corrections officers used excessive force against him, but prison officials rejected the complaint.

He later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of assault on a government official, and to an administrative charge that he assaulted staff.

Ingram, the second inmate, also pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of assault on a government official.

After the riot, Brower contends, prison officials confined him to long-term segregation for almost three years without good cause.

During that time, he maintains in his lawsuit, prison officials denied him contact visits, phone calls and recreation. He contends he was also denied access to sunlight, and to electric lights except when he was eating and showering.

The suit contends that was done to “intimidate and psychologically torture him.”

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