Former officer at Kentucky prison pleads guilty in connection with assault on inmate

Bill Estep
·2 min read
3

A former corrections officer at a federal prison in Eastern Kentucky pleaded guilty last week in connection with assaults on inmates.

Ryan O. Elliott, who was a lieutenant at USP Big Sandy in Martin County, pleaded guilty Nov. 21 to one charge of violating an inmate’s rights and one charge of falsifying records.

He agreed as part of his plea not to appeal any prison sentence of 33 months or less.

One assault at issue in the case happened on March 26, 2021, after an inmate had been taken to a holding cell for violating a prison rule.

Elliott saw another lieutenant, identified only by the initials T.M. in the plea, kick the inmate in the shin.

Elliott had not seen any behavior by the inmate, who also wasn’t fully named in the plea, to justify the assault, but he then tackled the inmate and punched him three or four times in the side, according to the court record.

Another corrections officer, Clinton Pauley, joined in the assault.

Guards put restraints on the inmate and took him to an isolation unit. The inmate was compliant and not aggressive during the entire incident, according to the plea agreement.

However, the lieutenant who kicked him, T.M., directed Elliott to write a false report about the incident.

Elliott said in a report that the inmate had been “violent and assaultive,” and had kicked Elliott, causing a minor injury, he said in his plea.

The next month, in April 2021, Elliott saw other officers escorting an inmate with a head injury out of the lieutenants’ office. He hadn’t seen what happened in the office, but assumed other staffers had assaulted the inmate, his plea said.

Elliott said another officer, Lt. Kevin Pearce, listed him as a witness to an incident in the office, even though he wasn’t there.

Pearce told Elliott to write a false report to help cover up the incident and looked over his shoulder while did it, Elliott’s plea said.

Elliott is scheduled to be sentenced in February.

Pauley and another former Big Sandy officer, Samuel J. Patrick, pleaded guilty earlier in connection with assaults on inmates.

Pauley was sentenced to more three years and four months in prison and Patrick was sentenced to three years.

A jury convicted Pearce and he is scheduled to be sentenced in December.