Kentucky prison officer wrote false reports about assaults on inmates, jury finds
A federal jury convicted an officer at a Kentucky prison of writing false reports about assaults on inmates.
The jury found Kevin C. Pearce Jr. guilty on two charges on Monday.
Jurors acquitted Pearce on two other charges of ordering other prison employees to write false reports about the incidents and one charge of violating an inmate’s rights by assaulting him, according to court records.
Pearce, Samuel J. Patrick and Clinton L. Pauley were charged in connection with attacks on inmates in 2021 at the federal prison in Martin County, called USP Big Sandy, where they worked as corrections officers.
Pauley and Patrick pleaded guilty, admitting that they struck inmates or shot them with pepper spray even though the inmates were not being aggressive.
Pearce, a lieutenant, maintained his not guilty plea and went to trial. Jurors convicted him in connection with assaults on two inmates.
In one case, he wrote that an inmate left an office at the prison “without incident,” when in reality Patrick and Pauley had assaulted the inmate in the office, according to the court record.
In the other case, Pearce said in a report that an inmate had “displayed imminent violence” toward officers and tried to head-butt an officer, but in fact the inmate did not show signs of violence or attempt to hit an officer, according to the charge on which Pearce was convicted.
Pauley and Patrick had kicked the inmate. Pearce wrote the false report to obstruct the investigation, according to the charge.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier scheduled Patrick and Pauley to be sentenced in June and Pearce to be sentenced in July.
The charges against Pearce carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
