JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES GEORGIA COUNTY JAIL OFFICER SENTENCED TO PRISON IN CIVIL RIGHTS CASE

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Justice Department today announced that Kevin Clark, a former Sergeant at the Dougherty County Jail in Albany, Georgia, was sentenced to six months imprisonment for obstructing justice in connection with a civil rights offense committed at the Dougherty County Jail.

Clark’s co-defendant, former Corrections Officer Stephanie Henry, previously pleaded guilty to using excessive force against an arrestee and was sentenced on Feb. 26, 2004 to six months imprisonment and six months home detention.

On March 9, 2002, while working as a detention officer at the jail, Henry grabbed a young female arrestee by the throat, choked her and caused injury. Clark, Henry’s supervisor, witnessed the incident and later helped her and other officers cover it up by not filing required reports and by subsequently filing false and misleading reports.

Henry pleaded guilty on December 19, 2003. She admitted that her use of force against the young woman was unnecessary and unjustified. Clark pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice on January 20, 2004.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and jointly prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.

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