Former Georgia Police Chief Walter Young was sentenced to 24 months in prison for physically abusing a man in his custody.
Walter Young, 54, was convicted of violating the civil rights of pretrial detainee Alfonso Moreno while serving as the chief of the Omega, Ga., Police Department. The abuse occurred on March 24, 2011.
According to evidence presented at trial, Young assaulted Moreno by repeatedly slapping and punching him in the head and face while he was fully restrained in a restraint chair. The former police chief struck Moreno a total of eight times, breaking his nose. The excessive use of force was captured by the jail’s video surveillance system.
A federal jury convicted Young on Aug. 1, 2012. The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Forrest Christian and Trial Attorney Tona Boyd of the Civil Rights Division, with the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia and the support of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
“There was no excuse for this use of force on a restrained individual and excessive force by those sworn to uphold the law will not be tolerated,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute law enforcement officers who violate the constitutional rights of others.”
“We trust our law enforcement officers to protect and serve the people of their community,” said Michael J. Moore, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. “When we discover violations of that trust, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will use all of our resources to see that those officers who broke the law are made to account for their actions.”
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