A Clayton County correctional officer was arrested and fired after allegedly punching an inmate and deploying his Taser, Sheriff Levon Allen said Friday.
Officer Darius Roberts and the inmate, whose name was not released, got into a verbal dispute Wednesday before Roberts threw the first punch, Allen said in a social media post.
Roberts, 31, allegedly struck the inmate several times, slammed him to the ground and tased him, investigators said.
“Officers and other staff members had to physically remove the officer from the inmate,” Allen said.
Roberts was charged with battery, simple assault and violation of oath of office, the sheriff said. He was fired the same day and released from the Clayton jail Thursday.
He had been with the sheriff’s office since Aug. 17.
“As a deputy sheriff, correctional officer or sheriff’s employee, inmates or citizens may try to bait you, but you are expected to rise above such challenges — whether they involve name-calling, slurs or anything that may hurt your feelings," Allen said. “Just as I will charge an inmate for fighting another inmate or for fighting an officer, if I find out an officer has attacked an inmate, I will charge them as well.”
The inmate assault and officer’s firing come weeks after the Clayton sheriff’s office made national headlines when a convicted killer was mistakenly released from jail.
Credit: Orange County Jail
Credit: Orange County Jail
Kathan Guzman, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend, spent two weeks on the lam after he was mistakenly released from the county jail March 25, officials said. Guzman was ultimately located by U.S. marshals in his native Florida.
On Thursday, Guzman was booked into the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, according to the Department of Corrections.
Allen publicly blamed his agency’s decades-old technology and poor training for Guzman’s release.
In recent years, multiple jailers and contractors have been accused of smuggling in contraband and other crimes, according to the sheriff’s office.
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