Attorney for inmate in latest Shelby County jail indictment outlines new beating details

The two Shelby County jailers that were indicted Tuesday for assaulting an inmate punched, kicked and hit him repeatedly with mace cans until he passed out, attorneys for the inmate told The Commercial Appeal on Tuesday evening.

Attorneys for that inmate, Damian Florez-Ramirez, also say the narrative written in an affidavit for an incident preceding the beating from those corrections officers is false and misleading.

Reginald Wilkins, a 16-year veteran of the Shelby County Jail, and Odell Underwood, a 25-year veteran of the Shelby County Jail, were booked at 201 Poplar and charged with simple assault, official oppression and official misconduct.

Shelby County District Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman said at a news conference announcing the indictment Tuesday morning that Florez-Ramirez's injuries were "non-life threatening."

But Florez-Ramirez's attorney said the injuries were still severe. She added that marks from the beating are still visible, including bruises, scars and stitches.

Two stories of what happened between Damian Florez-Ramirez, two Shelby County jailers

According Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said the corrections officers had taken Florez-Ramirez to a medical wing inside the jail following an altercation with officers. In that incident, according to the affidavit filed in a subsequent misdemeanor assault charge Florez-Ramirez received, the inmate threw two lunch trays at a corrections officer and then punched him.

After being punched, the affidavit said, Florez-Ramirez was then sprayed with a chemical agent. After being sprayed, he is then accused of throwing a chair at the corrections officer, who blocked the chair with his hands, before other deputies arrived to restrain Florez-Ramirez.

The corrections officer who was hit, according to the affidavit, was taken to Methodist University Hospital to have his hand treated for injuries.

The affidavit said Florez-Ramirez "became angry for unknown reasons."

But his attorney, Sara McKinney, said this narrative is not entirely accurate. McKinney also read notes from another inmate at 201 Poplar who said that the narrative the corrections officers wrote in the disciplinary report for the assault to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the jail, "does not match surveillance/fabrication of events."

According to McKinney, who was told a separate story by Florez-Ramirez, the altercation began during a security check and the officers "just mouthed off" to Florez-Ramirez and "he had enough of it," and slid two trays across the floor at the corrections officer.

After sliding the trays, she said the corrections officer began pepper spraying Florez-Ramirez, who then tried to punch the officer, but missed. After missing his punch, the corrections officer swung at the inmate, but also missed, according to McKinney.

After that, she said the corrections officer handcuffed Florez-Ramirez and he was taken to a medical room by corrections officers.

When they reached the medical room, McKinney said two nurses who were stationed in the room left. That's when she said Wilkins and Underwood walked in and began threatening Florez-Ramirez. McKinney said the threats were initially "general officer threats that they were going to harm him," but then the officers began hitting him.

"They started punching him and kicking him — and he's still handcuffed and he's seated," she said. "Then they start to beat him with the mace cans, and he said that it was especially his left eye. [Medical personnel] basically had to stitch his eye into the socket because the officers had beat him with this mace can so vigorously and he was not immediately seen by a nurse."

McKinney said there were no cameras in the medical room, and then the two corrections officers took Florez-Ramirez to a changing room, where there also were no cameras. According to McKinney, Underwood remained outside the changing room and "stood watch for any passersby" while Wilkins continued to hit Florez-Ramirez.

Eventually, Florez-Ramirez was uncuffed and the officers continued "beating him to the point where he passed out. He was unconscious because he was bleeding so profusely at that point. Then he woke up in the hospital," McKinney said.

"I think the injuries do reflect on those actions," McKinney said. "The fact is that he was handcuffed — with his hands behind his back — sitting in a chair and these officers continued to beat his face with cans of mace, and did so until he passed out and was unconscious from blood loss, and had to go to the hospital."

Attorney Jake Brown, who works for the Apperson Crump law firm alongside McKinney, said they plan to file a lawsuit on Florez-Ramirez's behalf, but did not have a timeline for that Tuesday.

The Gershun Freeman case

Brown and McKinney are currently part of the legal team representing the family of Gershun Freeman, a man who died at 201 Poplar in October after an altercation with corrections officers when he ran out of his cell.

Nine officers were criminally indicted in Freeman's death in September, a move that Bonner called "political" at the time. During that September news conference, he was in the midst of an unsuccessful campaign for Memphis mayor.

During Tuesday's news conference, Bonner said he still believed the charges in the Freeman case were wrong, but said he believed the charges in the Florez-Ramirez case were the correct decision. Both officers were suspended with pay following the incident in May, but were placed on suspension without pay following the indictment Tuesday morning.

"I want to start by reiterating: When I believe the officers are right, I will stand by them," Bonner said at a Tuesday news conference with Mulroy. "However, when I believe they're wrong, I will be the first to say so and try to hold them accountable to the full extent of the law. This is one of those cases.

Bonner also said the officers indicted Tuesday "do not represent the Shelby County Sheriff's Office," denying that there was a culture problem among Shelby County corrections officers. He said internal charges stemming from an internal investigation would be forthcoming.

McKinney said the difference in Bonner's response was "self-serving."

"Today, to turn around and say that, when his officers are in the wrong, he's going to be the first to say it — I think it's rather self-serving," she said. "I think Floyd Bonner is going to do whatever is best for him in whatever situation he's in, and he wants to feign some sort of accountability to make himself look better, that's clearly what he's done today."

SCSO declined to comment on the case since it is now being prosecuted by the Shelby County District Attorney's Office and redirected further comment to prosecutors. The DA's office did not respond to a request for comment as of this article's publication.

In addition to a possible lawsuit, McKinney said she wants the Department of Justice to investigate the jail and that her and Brown have been looking at some of the past federal mandates from prior DOJ investigations into the jail. When those mandates expire, she said violence rises in the jail, they said.

Lucas Finton is a criminal justice reporter with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at Lucas.Finton@commercialappeal.com and followed on Twitter @LucasFinton.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County jail indictment: Inmate lawyer outlines new details