Four Florida correctional officers have been arrested and charged with the murder of a handcuffed prisoner who threw urine at one of the officers, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
Security guards took the inmate out of a cell in the Miami-Dade County Jail’s mental health department on February 14 to transfer him to a North Florida prison. After the prisoner threw urine at the police officer, they handcuffed him and beat him, the department said.
“After the prisoner was removed, despite being handcuffed and following the officer’s orders, agents say officers began beating him. The prisoner was beaten so badly that he had to be taken to a transport van, the department said in a news release.
The prisoner is accommodated alone in what the authorities describe as a safe compartment in the van. CBS Miami has identified the victim as 60-year-old Ronald Ingram.
“Persons sentenced to imprisonment by our criminal courts have lost their freedom, but not their fundamental rights,” said Miami-Dade Attorney General Catherine Fernandez Rundl. “Prisoners should not be subject to forms of justice in the back street that are in violation of Florida law.”
The van stopped on the way and then Ingram was found dead lying on a bench in the vehicle, the statement added. The medical examiner described the death as murder, saying his death was caused by a punctured lung that led to internal bleeding. Ingram also had bruises on his face and torso.
Authorities said three correctional officers were arrested early Thursday: Christopher Rolon, 29, Kirk Walton, 34, and Ronald Connor, 24. Officer Jeremy Godbolt, 28, was arrested Friday afternoon. Each of the four police officers is charged with second-degree murder and aggravation of an elderly or disabled person, among other crimes.
All were detained on bail, and the men’s lawyers were not listed in the prison’s online archives.
Florida Repair Department Secretary Ricky Dixon said the department evaluates staff and management operations at Dade Correctional Institution. After the death of the detainees, the department removed all persons who could be involved in the incident from the establishment and left them on administrative leave. He also recruited law enforcement inspectors for each shift, reduced the prison population to temporarily alleviate staffing challenges, and sent each staff member to “additional mandatory training in the use of force and ethics.”
“What happened in this case is completely unacceptable and is not a representation of our system or the Dade Correctional Institution as a whole,” Dixon said. “The staff involved in this case have failed, and as an agency we will not stand for that.”
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