Georgia agency punished for destroying video of fatal prison stabbing

For destroying video footage of a prisoner’s fatal stabbing, the Georgia Department of Corrections has been sanctioned by a federal judge in an associated lawsuit against the officer blamed for allowing the attack.

Chief U.S. District Judge Leslie Gardner has cleared the way for the civil case over Hakeem Williams’ 2022 death to be heard by a jury in Valdosta. She noted in a Wednesday order the state agency will be on the hook for any verdict and associated judgment against its former employee, Angela Butler, who was sued by the mother of Williams’ only child.

The judge said she will further decide, at the end of the case, “appropriate monetary sanctions” against the Corrections Department, which is not directly involved in the litigation.

“GDC allowed the evidence to be destroyed while knowing that it needed to be preserved,” Gardner said, adding the department had acted in “bad faith.”

A department representative referred an inquiry about the ruling to the office of Attorney General Chris Carr, which is defending Butler in the case. A spokesperson for Carr’s office declined to comment “due to pending litigation.”

Gardner also sanctioned Butler for lying under oath about Williams’ death at the hands of his cellmate, Jonathan Bivens, in Valdosta State Prison. Gardner said the jury will be told Butler locked a handcuffed Williams in his cell with an unrestrained Bivens, who immediately stabbed Williams to death with a 9-inch makeshift metal knife.

Bivens is serving a life sentence without parole for murder and aggravated assault in relation to the incident, court records show.

Butler eventually admitted during the litigation she had violated the department’s policy, the judge said, noting that Williams and Bivens were classified as dangerous prisoners. Butler failed to restrain Bivens or search him before locking a defenseless Williams in the cell, court records show.

“Defendant stripped Williams of virtually every means of self-protection when she placed him in a locked cage with his hands restrained with an unrestrained inmate who had not been searched,” Gardner said. “Defendant admits that her action was dangerous, violated policy, and led to Williams’ death.”

The judge said Butler had intentionally lied earlier in the case by testifying she had handcuffed Bivens, who somehow got free and was able to stab Williams.

Gardner said she will consider further punishing Butler and her state lawyers for their failure to correct Butler’s false statements in a timely manner.

If the case doesn’t settle before trial, the jury will be told Butler lied and the corrections department destroyed video footage of the stabbing after reviewing it, in violation of its duty to preserve the evidence. The jurors will further be instructed that the video contained evidence unfavorable to Butler.

The department was notified nine days after Williams’ death in February 2022 that it needed to preserve the video footage, court records show. In November 2024, the department’s counsel said in an email “the footage was not downloaded or preserved and as a result, rolled over in the system as most video does.”

Butler was reprimanded by the Corrections Department over Williams’ death and had her pay docked for three months, case records show. She was fired in October 2022.

Haley Mackrell, the mother of Williams’ minor child, sued Butler in January 2024, claiming Butler acted with deliberate indifference to Williams’ constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. Williams was 27 when he died, with “a young daughter at home whom he loved deeply,” the lawsuit states.

Butler sought to end the case, arguing she acted reasonably and is entitled to immunity.

The judge rejected that request, saying no reasonable prison officer would have been so careless, knowing Williams and Bivens were dangerous inmates in an environment prone to violent attacks.