Former Kentucky deputy jailer sentenced in retaliation assault of inmate
A former Rockcastle County Deputy jailer has been sentenced to three years and three months in federal prison after being convicted of violating an inmate’s civil rights.
Derek Steven Clark, 25, was convicted in July after witnesses testified that he put an inmate into a restraint chair before he helped and directed the assault of the inmate by another inmate, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The victim had to be treated at a hospital, according to court records.
According to the sentencing memorandum by the U.S. attorney’s office, Clark gave a note to an inmate, telling that inmate to “get” the victim after the victim, who was intoxicated, broke another deputy jailer’s finger during booking. The assault against the victim was retaliation for the other deputy jailer’s broken finger, according to the memorandum.
Clark was found to have falsified a report, according to the release. In his report, Clark wrote that the victim had spit on deputy jailers, causing two other inmates to get involved. One inmate instinctively slapped the victim, causing a bloody lip, the report said. The victim then spit blood, causing the inmate to punch the victim.
Evidence showed that the victim was not combative and didn’t spit on deputies, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The victim was put into a restraint chair before being punched by the inmate.
Clark could have served 20 years in prison, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to a shorter sentence of four years and three months. Clark will have to serve at least 85 percent or three years and three months of the sentence. The U.S. Probation Office will supervise him for two years after he is released.
Another former deputy jailer, Deborah Martina Alcorn, pleaded guilty in July to violating an inmate’s civil rights in a separate federal case. Alcorn could have served 10 years in prison, but her plea agreement stated she could receive probation and home incarceration if she testified against Clark. According to Clark’s sentencing memorandum, “Deputy Jailer Alcorn” was the name of the deputy jailer whose finger was broken, setting off the assault.
In Alcorn’s case, she admitted that in 2018 a person was booked into the jail that she suspected of burglarizing her home a few months prior. When another inmate offered to “take care” of the inmate she suspected in the burglary, Alcorn told the inmate to go ahead and walked away. The inmate then fought with the person she suspected.
Clark was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Claria Horn Boom.
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 8:13 AM.
