WASHINGTON - Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma Sheldon J. Sperling announced today that Jarrod Anthony Yates, a former Sequoyah County, Okla., corrections officer, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Muskogee, Okla., for violating the civil rights of an inmate.
The indictment charges that on or about June 25, 2006, Yates, then a corrections officer at the Sequoyah County Jail in Sallisaw, Okla., assaulted a male detainee. He caused the detainee bodily injury, thereby willfully depriving him of rights secured and protected by the Constitution and laws of the United States. If found guilty of this charge, Yates faces a maximum punishment of 10 years of imprisonment, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.00.
The charge set forth in the indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.
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