Victim ‘kicked in the face like a football’
The trial of nine US jail officers accused over the brutal beating of an inmate opened with a dramatic account of the attack.
|||New York - The trial of nine US jail officers accused over the brutal beating of an inmate and a subsequent cover-up opened on Wednesday with a dramatic account of how the victim was kicked in the face “like a football.”
The trial in the Bronx Supreme court is being closely watched for fresh evidence about long-running allegations of systemic violence at Rikers Island, one of the largest municipal jails in America.
It comes after elected Democrats have called for the complex, which houses thousands of inmates, to be shut down, amid a national campaign against police brutality and demands for criminal justice reform.
The defendants, all former or current correction officers, face criminal charges including attempted gang assault, falsifying records and official misconduct. If convicted they face prison terms.
Attorney Pishoy Yacoub delivered a dramatic opening statement detailing the assault that Jahmal Lightfoot endured on the night of July 11, 2012 and accused the officers of covering it up.
The beating was ordered to make an example out of Lightfoot at a time when violence at New York's Rikers Island was at an “all-time high,” with stabbings, slashings and gang warfare, Yacoub said.
Eliseo Perez, an assistant chief of security, and Gerald Vaughn, a captain, ordered the assault, said Yacoub, quoting liberally from the swear words and threats he said they used.
Perez singled out Lightfoot during a search for weapons, which followed an inmate slashing, by saying “this guy thinks he's tough” and ordering his teeth to be kicked in, the prosecutor said.
Five corrections officers carried out the order, throwing Lightfoot to the ground, kicking and punching him as he placed his hands on his head to protect his face from being hit, the attorney said.
Officers pinned down his arms and legs, with two others “repeatedly kicking his face like a football” and “stomping on his head with the heels of their boots” until they fractured both eye sockets and broke his nose, he added.
The officers were supposed to report the incident within 15 minutes, but waited two hours, and a total of 18 hours before they reported that Lightfoot attacked one of them with a sharp object, Yacoub said.
One of the officers on trial, was grazed in the assault, his defence lawyer told the court.
Yacoub said the officers planted a sharp piece of metal on Lightfoot that was detached from a piece of kit worn by correction officers, and that other inmates heard muffled screams from 30 feet away.
All defendants plead not guilty. A jury will determine the guilt or innocence of six defendants.
The other three have opted for Judge Steven Barrett, who is presiding over the trial, to determine whether or not they will be convicted.
A tenth defendant will be tried separately.
defence lawyers told the court Wednesday that the incident during the search for weapons took place in the wing of the complex “where the toughest of toughest are housed.”
Lightfoot was in jail for putting a gun to someone during a robbery, one of the lawyers said. “These aren't nice people,” he added.
They urged the jury to look at the case critically and assess the credibility of witnesses, who are scheduled to include Lightfoot and other inmates, and question what could motivate them to lie.
“Bias, sympathy, prejudice has no place in this court room,” said Paul London, another of the defence lawyers.
“You will not be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they did anything wrong,” he added.
In 2014, a US federal investigation uncovered what prosecutors called a “pervasive and deep-seated culture of violence” and called the facility a “broken institution” for teenager inmates.
Last June, the city of New York and federal prosecutors promised sweeping reforms designed to end decades of violence against inmates.
AFP