DORAL, Fla. – A corrections officer was indicted Monday after federal prosecutors said he and another guard assaulted two inmates at a state-run facility for youthful offenders in Miami-Dade County last year.
Terrance Reynolds, 28, faces charges of conspiring to violate the inmates’ civil rights and depriving them of those rights while in custody. Reynolds is also accused of making false statements to authorities.
Prosecutors said Reynolds, 28, and Brendan Butler, 29, removed three young inmates from the general population and took them to a janitor's closet on March 27, 2017. Once inside, Reynolds and Butler attacked one of the inmates with a broomstick while the other two watched, prosecutors said.
A day later, Reynolds and Butler assaulted one of inmates who witnessed the attack in the closet because he was telling other inmates about the assault, prosecutors said.
Both victims were seriously hurt in the assaults, prosecutors said.
The facility, the South Florida Reception Center in Doral, houses inmates under 24 years old. Butler entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors in May and was sentenced to 24 months in prison in August.
Patrick Manderfield, press secretary for the Florida Department of Corrections, said Butler resigned in June 2017 and the agency is in the process of dismissing Reynolds.
"The actions of these officers were unacceptable and do not reflect the thousands of FDC staff who perform their jobs with integrity every day," Manderfield said. "We commend the work of our inspector general's office and law enforcement partners for ensuring they were charged appropriately."