Three prison employees indicted on civil rights violations

By Lilly Adkins

BSN Associate Editor

LONDON — Three United States Penitentiary Big Sandy employees were indicted Thursday in London on federal civil rights violations.

A federal grand jury returned indictments charging Samuel J. Patrick, 41, of West Van Lear; Clinton L. Pauley, 40, of Ironton, Ohio; and Kevin C. Pearce Jr., 37, of Inez, with 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 and Pauley 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 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.

The investigation preceding the indictment was conducted by the DOJ OIG and the FBI. The case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zach Dembo and trial attorney Thomas Johnson of the Civil Rights Division.

Patrick, Pauley, and Pearce are scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court at Pikeville on June 6.

For the deprivation of rights charges, they each face a maximum of 10 years, and for the falsification of records charges, they each face 20 years for each count. Any sentence following a conviction would be imposed by the court after its consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and federal sentencing statutes.

(Editor’s note: An indictment is not at indication of guilt but a determination by a grand jury that criminal charges warrant further judicial review.)