A former high-ranking law enforcement officer in Missouri has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for brutally beating inmates in his custody, the Grimy Times has learned.
Vernon Wilson, the former Chief Deputy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department in Potosi, Missouri, was convicted of violating the civil rights of four former inmates of the Washington County Jail on four separate occasions.
A jury found Wilson guilty on March 3, 2011, of beating two of the inmates and orchestrating the beatings of two other inmates. He was also convicted of two counts of lying to the FBI about his role in two of the attacks.
According to evidence presented at trial, Wilson struck inmates repeatedly in the face, banging their heads into a concrete wall. In two other instances, Wilson ordered an inmate, known for fighting, to assault the victims, and rewarded the inmate accomplice with cigarettes.
One of the victims required hospitalization due to a broken orbital bone and other serious injuries.
“Corrections officers are charged with the very important task of maintaining security and discipline in their facilities,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “When corrections officers seek to inflict unjustified punishments on inmates by inciting and inflicting beatings, they threaten the very fabric of our criminal justice system, and they will be prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”
Wilson’s daughter, Valeria Wilson Jackson, 26, a former employee of the Sheriff’s Department who worked under Wilson’s supervision, previously pleaded guilty on July 14, 2010, to one count of obstruction of justice for lying to the FBI about her role in one of the beatings.
Wilson was sentenced in federal court in St. Louis, Missouri, on an unspecified date in March 2011. He will serve 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
The cases were investigated by the St. Louis Division of the FBI and prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Fara Gold and Patricia A. Sumner of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
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- Jeffrey K. Wilson, Identity Theft, Missouri 2024 · Kansas
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- James Allen, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana, Missouri 2013 · Colorado
- Hamid Reza Tahmasebi, Theft of Government Property, Missouri 2015 · Kansas
Key Facts
- State: Washington
- Category: Public Corruption|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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