Former correctional sergeant charged with assaulting inmates and falsifying report

The Justice Department announced Friday that a federal grand jury indicted a former Alabama correctional sergeant for assaulting three compliant inmates with a wooden baton and falsifying his report of the incident.

On October 25, 2020, Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) Sergeant Lorenzo Mills confronted three inmates at ADOC’s Draper Correctional Facility and ordered them to turn around before allegedly hitting them with a wooden baton. According to court records, two of the men suffered bruises on their back side and one sustained a fractured arm.

After the incident, Sgt. Mills reportedly submitted a false written statement claiming that he had not used any force against the three inmate victims. According to federal prosecutors, the inmates were compliant and not resisting during the assault.

On Friday, the Justice Department announced that Mills has been charged in a four-count indictment for assaulting the three inmates and falsification of records for submitting a false written statement in connection with the incident. Mills faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each of the civil rights charges and 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice offense.