Deputies beat naked detainee who didn’t squat properly, broke his eye socket, feds say

Two deputies strip-searched a detainee at a Louisiana jail, then beat him when he didn’t squat the way they wanted, federal officials said.

Javarrea Pouncy, a 31-year-old former sergeant with the DeSoto Parish Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty to deprivation of civil rights under color of law by use of excessive force and has been sentenced to three years and one month in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana said in an Oct. 16 news release.

His colleague, Deputy DeMarkes Grant, was sentenced to 10 months in prison on a guilty plea of obstruction of justice, federal officials said.

McClatchy News reached out to their attorneys and the sheriff’s office for comment Oct. 17 but didn’t immediately receive a response.

In September 2019, an arrestee was admitted to the DeSoto Parish jail for non-violent offenses, prosecutors said in Pouncy’s plea agreement.

As part of the booking process, the correctional officers took him to a laundry room and ordered him to take off his clothes and squat, according to prosecutors. But “the squats did not fully comply with the officers’ directions,” and they started beating him, officials said in the indictment.

The deputies are accused of punching him nearly 50 times in the head, face and stomach, giving him a broken eye socket, broken nose and other injuries that required hospitalization.

Then they tried to cover up the assault, according to officials. Pouncy is accused of lying about the inmate’s behavior, the excessive force and seeking medical attention after the fact. Grant failed to include the “unreasonable force” in his report, prosecutors said.

Pouncy “pledged to protect and serve his community, but instead, he repeatedly punched a detainee without justification, leaving him bloodied and broken,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “People in detention have the right to be treated humanely and not to be brutalized by excessive force.”

DeSoto Parish is in northwest Louisiana along the border of Texas.