Corrections officers sentenced in case involving assault of inmate and cover up

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Six former officers at an eastern Kentucky prison who pleaded guilty in a case involving the assault of an inmate have been sentenced to prison, the Justice Department said.

Three officers who participated in the 2018 assault at Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex and tried to cover it up received varying sentences Monday, the department said in a statement. Randall Dennis, 28, was sentenced to five years; James Benish, 37, was sentenced to 27 months and Jeffery Havens, 28, was sentenced to 15 months, the agency said.

A supervisor and two other officers who helped try to cover up the assault each received a sentence of one month in prison, the statement said.

Dennis and Benish assaulted the inmate as he lay facedown wearing handcuffs and leg shackles in a prison shower and Havens joined in, the Justice Department said. The three others were standing outside the shower when the assault began and wrote false reports and lied to investigators about what happened, the agency said.

“These sentences should send a clear message: corrections officers are not above the law in our country,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.