2017 National Conference on Bullying

The School Safety Advocacy Council's 2017 National Conference on Bullying will be held in Orlando, Fla., March 1-3, 2017. For information and to register, go to http://schoolsafety911.org/event05.html.

Three Former Supervisory Correctional Officers Charged with Beating Handcuffed and Shackled Inmate at Angola State Prison

Officers Falsified Reports and Tampered with Witnesses to Cover Up Beating

Three former supervisory correctional officers at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, were indicted today for beating a handcuffed and shackled inmate, and conspiring to cover up their misconduct by falsifying official records, committing perjury and tampering with witnesses as well as physical evidence.

According to the indictment, former Major Daniel Davis, 40, of Loranger, Louisiana; former Captain John Sanders, 31, of Marksville, Louisiana; and former Captain James Savoy, 38, of Marksville, beat an inmate, who suffered bodily injury as a result.  The defendants then created a false cover story, asserting that they had used reasonable force to get the inmate under control after he had gotten out of his cell and fought with officers.  To corroborate that false cover story, members of the conspiracy instructed subordinates to clean up the inmate’s blood before internal investigators could document it, falsified official prison reports and records, ordered subordinates to lie to internal affairs investigators and lied under oath in a federal civil proceeding arising out of the incident.

A fourth former supervisory correctional officer, Captain Scotty Kennedy, 48, of Beebe, Arkansas, pleaded guilty on Tuesday for his role in the incident.

An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Baton Rouge Division and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Frederick A. Menner Jr. of the Middle District of Louisiana and Trial Attorney Christopher J. Perras of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.

California Resident Convicted of Conspiracy, Theft of Public Money and Aggravated Identity Theft

A federal jury sitting in Oakland, California convicted a resident of Richmond, California yesterday for his role in a conspiracy to steal identities and cash fraudulently obtained and stolen U.S. Treasury checks, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo, head of the Justice Department’s Tax Division; U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch of the Northern District of California; and Special Agent in Charge Michael T. Batdorf of Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

Hugh Robinson was convicted on all charges of conspiracy to commit theft of public money, theft of public money, and aggravated identity theft following a five-day trial before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery S. White in the Northern District of California. In November 2015, Robinson was charged, along with 10 co-defendants.  According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, from at least August 2013 through April 2015, Robinson conspired with his co-defendants to obtain the names of deceased individuals by searching California death records, and electronically file false income tax returns in the names of those deceased individuals claiming refunds.  Robinson and his co-defendants listed addresses on these tax returns to which they had access to enable them to retrieve the refund checks.

According to the indictment and the evidence presented at trial, Janel McDonald, a charged co-conspirator, provided false and fraudulent California identification documents to other co-conspirators who used the false identifications to negotiate the refund checks. Robinson and other co-defendants cashed checks at various Walmart stores, including a store in Richmond, California where Robinson worked with co-conspirators to negotiate the fraudulently obtained checks.  According to the criminal complaint, a search of Robinson’s residence yielded U.S. Treasury checks totaling more than $237,000.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 7, 2017.  Robinson faces a statutory maximum sentence of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit theft of public money, 10 years in prison for each count of theft of public money, and a mandatory sentence of two years in prison for each count of aggravated identity theft.  Robinson also faces a period of supervised release and monetary penalties.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ciraolo, U.S. Attorney Stretch, and Special Agent in Charge Batdorf commended agents of IRS-CI, who conducted the investigation, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas Newman and Jose A. Olivera, and Trial Attorney Gregory Bernstein of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, who prosecuted the case.