Prison officer pleads not guilty

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

PIKEVILLE — One of three United States Penitentiary Big Sandy employees indicted on federal civil rights violations pleaded not guilty last week.

An Aug. 15 trial date was scheduled for Samuel J. Patrick, 41, of West Van Lear, after he pleaded not guilty June 6 in U.S. District Court at Pikeville.

Arraignment for his co-defendants, Clinton L. Pauley, 40, of Ironton, Ohio, and Kevin C. Pearce Jr., 37, of Inez, is slated for June 23.

The three USP Big Sandy corrections officers were indicted June 2 on charges of violating an individual’s right under the color of law and falsifying records to impede an investigation.

According to a release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the indictment alleges that on April 29, 2021, Patrick, a case management coordinator, and Pauley, a captain’s secretary, assaulted an inmate in the lieutenant’s office of USP Big Sandy in Inez. After Pearce and a subordinate Bureau of Prisons employee witnessed the assault, Pearce, the lieutenant, asked the employee to write an untruthful report, omitting the assault, the release said. The indictment also alleges that Patrick pressured the employee to submit to Pearce’s demand.

In addition, the indictment alleges that Pearce wrote a memorandum that documented the false account of the officers’ interactions with the inmate who was assaulted, stating that another employee was present in the office with the victim and that the victim left the office without incident, omitting the assault. Patrick and Pauley are also alleged to have written memos to cover up the assault.

The indictment further alleges that Pauley previously assaulted another inmate on March 26, 2021, while the prisoner was being escorted away from the lieutenants’ office and that he subsequently wrote a false incident report to cover up that assault.