WASHINGTON, D.C. — A former Randolph County correctional officer pleaded guilty Friday to a civil rights violation after assaulting a handcuffed detainee before a trial, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
Adam Joseph Neal Graham, 26, of Elkins, was serving as a correctional officer at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail in Belington when he forcibly slammed an 18-year-old detainee to the ground during an intake screening in March 2015.
According to Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Betsy Steinfeld Jividen, the man was sitting in a chair, acting distraught before the attack. Graham told the victim to be quiet several times before Graham began applying pressure to the person’s shoulder and neck area.
Without warning, Graham grabbed the person and forced them to the ground.
Graham acknowledged his use of force was not justified by any law enforcement authority during a plea hearing.
“The federal government will actively prosecute those correctional officers, who like the defendant, abuse their authority and violate their oath by unlawfully utilizing physical force as a form of punishment,” Wheeler said in a statement.