WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice issued a release Monday (July 6) stating that four former supervisory correctional officers at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola have been sentenced for their roles in beating an inmate who was handcuffed, shackled and not resisting, and for devising a false cover story to hide the incident.

The Department says Daniel Davis, 43, Scotty Kennedy, 52, John Sanders, 34, and James Savoy, Jr. 42 were sentenced on July 2.

Kennedy, Sanders, and Savoy each pleaded guilty. Sanders and Savoy were sentenced to 18 months of imprisonment, and 24 months of imprisonment, respectively.

Kennedy, the least culpable officer, was sentenced to a 14-month term of probation during which he will be required to team up with the FBI to give presentations to federal, state, and local correctional officers about the consequences of using excessive force and falsifying reports.

Davis, who was found to be the ringleader in the beating, was sentenced to up to 110 months of imprisonment.

Davis was convicted in one trial of the obstruction and in another trial of the beating. At his trials, Kennedy and Sanders were among other officers who described the abuse and extensive cover up.

The trial evidence established that Davis initiated the beating by yanking the inmate’s leg chains, causing the inmate to fall face-first onto the concrete breezeway.

At that point, Davis and other officers punched, kicked, and stomped on the inmate, leaving the inmate with a dislocated shoulder, a hematoma, a collapsed lung, and broken ribs.

Davis later ordered his subordinate officers to cover up the beating by falsifying reports, fabricating prison records, and lying to investigators.

WBRZ reported the case back in 2016, the corresponding article can be found here.