Correctional Officers Charged With Organizing Attack On Inmate
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Two Cook County Jail guards were charged Thursday with arranging the beating of an 18-year-old inmate after he short-circuited power in the jail.
The victim was in jail for crashing a car into another motorist on purpose in December 2011. He was later convicted and sentenced to probation, records show.
Officers Delphia A. Sawyer, 31, and Pamela R. Bruce, 30, got two other inmates to beat up the 18-year-old in February 2012, authorities said. The officers are charged with obstruction of justice, perjury, official misconduct and mob action -- all felonies. A bond hearing was scheduled for Friday.
The victim was in trouble for cutting off power in the jail, a law enforcement source said. He caused a short-circuit when he used electrical wiring to catch something on fire in order to light a cigarette, the source said.
Sawyer and Bruce allegedly ordered his beating after he "mouthed off" to other guards, a witness told the Chicago Sun-Times last year.
"You see what happens when you f - - - with us," the witness claims he heard one guard say.
More than 60 people, including inmates, were interviewed in the sheriff's investigation of the alleged beating.
"It is a shame that officers like this bring disgrace to those who work so hard under difficult conditions," Sheriff Tom Dart said in a prepared statement.
