BALTIMORE — A jury in Baltimore is resuming
deliberations in the first federal trial stemming from the severe beating of a
state prison inmate in 2008.
The jury continued its work
Thursday morning after deliberating for about 90 minutes on Wednesday.
Suspended correctional officer
Josh Hummer is accused of failing to stop several other officers from severely
beating inmate Kenneth Davis after Davis allegedly punched a guard at the
Roxbury Correctional Institution near Hagerstown.
His attorney says Hummer never
saw the beating that left Davis with a broken nose, back and ribs.
Prosecutors say Hummer also
failed to get medical help for Davis and conspired to cover up the beating.
Twelve former officers have
pleaded guilty to federal charges and two to state charges.
Davis recovered and was
released in 2012.
Hummer was indicted in February
on four counts.
The trial centered on claims
that Hummer joined others at the correctional institution in violating Davis’
civil rights while the state inmate was being held at the prison near
Hagerstown.
Hummer’s is the first trial
stemming from federal indictments of 15 current or former officers on charges
they conspired to systematically beat Davis after he bloodied a guard’s nose in
a scuffle.
The U.S. Justice Department’s
Civil Rights Division said it is trying to achieve what state prosecutors
failed to do in a series of trials more than five years ago: Persuade a jury
that any of the officers broke the law.
Attorney Clarke Ahlers accused
prosecutors of manipulating evidence to fit their theory that Hummer joined
others in violating Davis’ rights.
Federal prosecutors don’t
allege that Hummer actively participated in the beating. They say he allegedly
failed to stop other officers from beating and kicking Davis; failed to get
medical help for the inmate; and conspired in a coverup that included
destroying incriminating surveillance video.
“That’s the Roxbury way,”
prosecutor Forrest Christian told the jury. “When an inmate hits an officer,
the next three shifts are going to beat that inmate.”
Ahlers countered that Hummer is
“a man with an exemplary reputation,” wrongly accused.
He acknowledged that Hummer had
lied early on, telling investigators that Davis’ cell door was closed when he
walked by looking for a pair of gloves.
But Hummer voluntarily
corrected his account days later, telling a Maryland State Police detective
that all he saw through the open cell door was an officer squatting down to
talk to Davis as the inmate lay beneath his bunk with his face to the wall.
“There was nothing to where, as
a sergeant, I would have stopped to really address,” Hummer told investigators
in a statement Ahlers read aloud to the jury.
Twelve defendants in the case
have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and other offenses in federal court. Two more
await trial.
Nine Roxbury officers, not
including Hummer, were charged in state court shortly after the beating. Just
two were convicted after taking plea deals and defying what one called “the
brotherhood of silence” to testify against co-workers.
Five were acquitted, charges
were dropped for one defendant before trial and dismissed for another after his
trial ended in a hung jury.
Davis, 47, of Baltimore was
serving a 19-year sentence for robbery when he was assaulted. He was released
in October 2012.
Federal prosecutors said in a
filing that Davis received about $100,000 to settle his administrative
complaint against state authorities, including several of the indicted
officers.
