Plea hearings are scheduled for this week in the cases of two West Virginia corrections officers accused in the the beating of an inmate while he was already restrained and handcuffed at Southern Regional Jail.
The inmate, 37-year-old pre-trial detainee Quantez Burks, died that day. His death has been at the center of criticism about the safety of West Virginia’s jail system.
Corrections officers Andrew Fleshman and Steven Nicholas Wimmer are set for plea hearings at 11 and and 11:30 a.m. Thursday in Beckley before U.S. District Judge Frank Volk.
The plea hearing was originally scheduled for late September, but a chemical spill on the West Virginia Turnpike caused a delay.
Fleshman and Wimmer are charged with conspiracy against the rights of citizens under the U.S. Code Title 18, Section 241.
The federal filings accuse the two of being at work as corrections officers around March 1, 2022, when they responded to a call for assistance after Burks tried to push past a corrections officer and leave Southern Regional Jail’s C-pod.
When Fleshman and Wimmer arrived, according to the filings, Burks was on the floor “as other persons known and unknown to the United States Attorney were engaged in using force” against him.
The officers then restrained and handcuffed Burks, identified in the filings as Q.B.
Then, according to the allegations, the officers conspired to further physically punish the inmate.
They escorted Burks to an interview room where officers “aided and abetted by each other, struck and otherwise assaulted and injured Q.B. to punish him while he was restrained, handcuffed and while he posed no threat to anyone.”
The officers then escorted Burks back to a cell in the A-pod. There, according to the filings, the assault continued while the inmate was still restrained.
Burks had only been in jail 24 hours. He had been arrested Feb. 28, 2022, and charged with wanton endangerment and obstructing an officer, allegations related to discharging a firearm at his home during an argument.
He died March 1.
His case has stirred outrage about the safety of West Virginia’s jails.
Last January, his mother confronted Gov. Jim Justice during a town hall meeting.
“I have not received a phone call from the state, from the police department or anybody acknowledging that something happened to my son at the (Southern Regional Jail),” Kimberly Burks said to the governor, according to coverage by Beckley’s Register-Herald newspaper.
The Burks family sought a private autopsy that indicated blunt force trauma wounds all over his body and that he died of a heart attack.
Thirteen deaths were reported over a year’s time at Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, Raleigh County. Earlier this year, a federal lawsuit was filed over conditions in West Virginia’s jails system. Another federal lawsuit focuses on allegations of inhumane conditions at Southern Regional Jail.
When charges were filed against the corrections officers, Kimberly Burks told WVNS TV and other news outlets that it’s encouraging that charges were filed in her son’s death. But she said this should not be the end.
“It was just exactly what we’re looking for,” Kimberly Burks said of the charges brought against Fleshman and Wimmer. “But let’s not get that confused to think they’re the only perpetrators because they’re not.”