Excessive Force Guilty Plea Sentencing

In a Press Release at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/September/09-crt-938.html , the U. S. Department of Justice (”DOJ”) announced that a former deputy with the Shelby County, Tennessee Sheriff’s Office has been sentenced by a federal court in Memphis to 18 months in prison and two years of supervised release for using excessive force during an encounter with a citizen.  According to the September 8, 2009 DOJ Press Release, the former deputy pleaded guilty on April 9, 2009 to unnecessarily striking the head of a man he encountered outside a residence in Cordova, Tennessee while conducting an investigation in March or April of 2006.  As stated in the Press Release, the former deputy acknowledged that he abused his authority as a law enforcement officer and agreed that his conduct violated federal law and the constitutional rights of the man he struck.  A U.S. attorney was quoted in the Press Release saying that “The sentence should serve as a reminder and message to those law enforcement officers who violate the protections of the Fourth Amendment that their actions are unnacceptable, they will be prosecuted and they will serve time.”  The excessive force case was investigated by a multiagency task force led by the FBI and staffed with investigators from a Memphis Field Office, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and the Memphis Police Department.  Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King stated in the Press Release that “The Civil Rights Division will continue to investigate and prosecute rogue police officers who abuse the rights of those they are sworn to protect and serve.”