A Georgia sheriff’s deputy recruit was fired and arrested after beating up an inmate at a jail, Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens announced Monday.
Deputy Recruit Jacqun Brown, 25, was placed behind bars at the identical jail where he worked just hours before his arrest.
Brown was charged with battery and violation of his oath of office, based on the sheriff’s office.
“We is not going to tolerate abuse of power,” Owens said at a news conference. “We’ll uphold laws equally and fairly.”
On Saturday, Brown allegedly beat an inmate he was attempting to take to a different a part of the jail.
“The deputy [recruit] was moving the [detainee] in an try to de-escalate a situation contained in the pod area,” the sheriff said. “He was causing a disturbance. An exchange of words began, and the final result was the deputy attacking the inmate. It was a transparent violation of all of our training and protocols in our policies.”
Owens said Brown had just accomplished his training and was in a probationary period of employment on the jail and had not yet turn out to be a full-fledged deputy.
The victim, who was in jail on drug trafficking charges, suffered “superficial injuries” and was taken to a hospital as a precaution, Owens said.
“We quickly reviewed the evidence… and decided to alleviate the recruit immediately of his job,” he said.
Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady Jr. praised the sheriff’s office for its swift motion in terminating and arresting Brown.
“We’ll hold law enforcement accountable after they do mistaken,” Broady, Jr. said. “And, you see that within the motion of the sheriff, the quickness.”
Owens said video of the incident can be released in the approaching days.
