Two ex-prison employees plead guilty to civil rights charges

By TONY FYFFE

BSN Editor

PIKEVILLE — Two of three former United States Penitentiary Big Sandy employees indicted last year on federal civil rights violations in connection with the assault of inmates pleaded guilty last week in U.S. District Court.

Samuel J. Patrick, 41, of West Van Lear, pleaded guilty to two counts and Clinton L. Pauley, 40, of Ironton, Ohio, pleaded guilty to three counts of deprivation of rights under the color of law for assaulting inmates in 2021.

Trial is scheduled later this month for a third defendant, Kevin C. Pearce Jr., 37, of Inez.

According to a release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the time of the indictment, Patrick and Pauley assaulted an inmate in the lieutenant’s office of USP Big Sandy in Inez on April 29, 2021. 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.