Bill Myers and Scott McCabe, The Examiner
2007-10-25 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

WASHINGTON -

Top officials in the D.C. Jail improperly forced corrections officers out of their jobs after an inmate accused them of sexual assault, the officers’ union said Wednesday.

Four veteran officers have resigned or retired and four others have been suspended after a 31-year-old inmate accused them of violating him during a Jan. 29 strip search.

But John Rosser, vice chairman of the union, said the officers are being unfairly pressured by a leader who doesn’t understand what’s happening in its jail.

“We’re in the tiers, dealing with the smells and yells. They just deal with books,” Rosser said of Department of Corrections Director Devon Brown and his staff. “We’re dealing with a population that’s already shown it can’t conform with society’s norms.”

Rosser’s statement is further evidence of escalating tensions between frontline officers and Brown, who has vowed to clean up a department that’s been rife with corruption and abuse for decades.

Brown’s spokeswoman, Beverly Young, sent an e-mail in which she said that the jail’s “unwavering goal [is] to develop ... a system where all of the District can take pride.”

“To the degree that there are employees within our organization who seriously neglect this responsibility, we are obligated to treat the matter accordingly,” she added.

Young also took issue with Rosser’s characterization of the complaints against the officer, saying that the internal review was focused on proper strip-search policy, not sexual assault.

But she did say that the U.S. attorney’s office has already declined to file charges.

The Jan. 29 incident was caught on tape, but jail officials have not released it to the public, despite a Freedom of Information Act request.

Sources have given conflicting accounts on what occurred: One source said that the tape shows the officers stripping the inmate down and marching him up and down his ward, poking him as he walked.

The union says the tape merely shows the officers wrestling the inmate to the ground after he refused to submit to a search, but not actually violating him.

Rosser said the officers conducted the strip search after they thought they smelled marijuana. When they came to the inmate’s cell, they saw him trying to hide “contraband” in his body.

Jail regulations forbid officers from doing cavity searches, so they asked him to come to the infirmary, Rosser said.

On the way, the inmate asked to go to the bathroom and was allowed to do so, Rosser said.

Once in the bathroom, he disposed of the “contraband,” Rosser said.

When the inmate got to the infirmary, he was bleeding internally and he told doctors that he had been assaulted, according to sources.

bmyers@dcexaminer.com

smccabe@dcexaminer.com