4 ex-guards sentenced in beating of cuffed Missouri inmate

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Four former guards at a Kansas City jail have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two years to nearly four years for beating a handcuffed inmate as a punishment.

The U.S. attorney's office said in a news release Travis Hewitt, 30, and Jen-I Pulos, 34, were sentenced Thursday. Terrance Dooley, 39, and Dakota Pearce, 27, were sentenced last month.

Prosecutors said the victim was detained on the Fourth of July in 2015 on a probation violation in a driving while intoxicated case. He was placed in the medical housing unit of the Jackson County Detention Center because he was experiencing severe symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

The victim subsequently got into a scuffle with a corrections officer when he attempted to go somewhere he wasn't supposed to while "clearly disoriented and unaware of his whereabouts," the release said. When the officer called for help, Hewitt and Pearce, who served as acting sergeants, responded and placed the victim in a holding cell.

Read more: https://www.newstribune.com/news/local/story/2020/jul/10/4-ex-guards-sentenced-in-beating-of-cuffed-missouri-inmate/833838/
(Jefferson City News Tribune)