Four D.C. Jail officers have resigned or retired, and four others have been suspended after being accused of abusing an inmate — an encounter that was captured on videotape, The Examiner has learned.
A ninth officer named in the allegations has been cleared and returned to duty, jail spokeswoman Beverly Young told The Examiner on Monday. She confirmed that jail officials are investigating “an improper strip search” and that eight officers, including a lieutenant, have left or been suspended. But Young declined to elaborate, citing personnel privacy rules.
Jail warden William J. Smith resigned Monday, after months of contentious relations with the officers’ union. Young said his resignation wasn’t related to the episode involving the suspended officers. Smith couldn’t be reached for comment.
The encounter with the officers occurred on Jan. 29 after officers tried to strip-search a 31-year-old inmate, sources said. The inmate was arrested in August 2006 and charged with violating parole on an earlier case, according to court records.
Sources confirm that an episode during the inmate’s processing was captured by the jail’s video cameras but have given conflicting accounts about what the tape shows. One source who claimed to have seen the tape, and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the officers stripped the man naked and then marched him up and down his ward. As the inmate walked, tears in his eyes, an officer poked him repeatedly with his finger, the source said. The man suffered internal bleeding, sources said.
Jail officers union chairwoman Nila Ritenour called that version of the encounter “absurd.” She said that the inmate was suspected of hiding “contraband” and ordered to submit to a body-cavity search. He took off his clothes and stepped out of his cell, but fought the officers when they tried to search him, Ritenour said.
After a brief struggle, the officers had the inmate put his clothes back on and took him to the infirmary.
Ritenour said the bleeding was the result of his hiding the contraband.
The suspensions mark the second scandal to hit the jail in the past year.
Last summer, two inmates who were awaiting trial related to a homicide walked out of the jail wearing parts of officers’ uniforms. Authorities have alleged that corrections officers aided the escape.
Nearly two dozen officers are on disciplinary leave from the jail right now, and the jail is in danger of being held in contempt for its continual violation of court-imposed population restraints.
Got a tip on the D.C. Jail? Call Bill Myers at202-459-4956 or e-mail [email protected].
