DAGGETT COUNTY, Utah, May 5, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — The Office of the Utah Attorney General on Friday filed felony and misdemeanor charges against Daggett County employees.
The charges stem from a department investigation into misconduct and criminal allegations at the county jail, including assaults on inmates, mismanagement, inappropriate behavior between staff and inmates, and unsafe correctional practices.
Among the charges were seven counts of aggravated assault. Those charged are former Sheriff Jerry Jorgensen; former commander Ben Lail; Joshua J. Cox; and deputies Joshua J. Cox, Rodrigo Toledo and Logan Walker.
Gephardt Daily was able to obtain probable cause statements for three of those charged:
Deputy Joshua J. Cox faces:
• Seven counts of aggravated assault in connection with the alleged use of a personal stun gun, a third-degree felony. In some cases, Cox is said to have Tasered inmates after promising them soda if they could withstand five seconds of the electrical shock from his stun gun. In another case, an inmate was Tasered as an “initiation” to joining an outdoor work crew.
• Two counts of transporting a dangerous weapon into a secure area of a correctional facility, a third-degree felony, in connection with bringing in a Taser.
• One count of theft, a Class A misdemeanor, in connection with taking a Taser belonging to the Smithfield Police Department when he left its employment in January of 2016. The Taser had been purchased by the SPD for $800.
• One count of reckless endangerment, a Class A misdemeanor, in connection with bringing an uncertified, unleashed K9 to the jail for obedience training, and asking to inmates to restrain it. The inmates were bitten.
Jerry J. Jorgensen, former Daggett County Sheriff, faces:
• One count of failure of a sheriff to safely keep inmates, a Class A misdemeanor.
• One count of obstruction of justice in criminal investigations or preceedings, a Class A misdemeanor, related to denying knowledge of instances of abuse that had been reported to him.
• One count of official misconduct, a Class B misdemeanor.
Lt. Benjamin C. Lail faces one charge:
• Aggravated assault, a third-degree felony, in connection with an incident in which an imate was allegedly threatened with a Taser that was pointed at her feet. Witnesses reported that Lail also told the inmate, “Ok, you’re done, now get back to class.’
As more details emerge, Attorney General Sean Reyes released a statement:
“The alleged actions of at least one defendant constitute unbelievably inhumane conduct and a reprehensible miscarriage of justice and the actions of all the defendants are inexcusable.”
Utah Department of Corrections Executive Director Rollin Cook issued the following statement on the case:
As the numerous felony and misdemeanor charges against the Daggett County employees show, the investigation into the jail operations uncovered allegations of abuse of inmates at the hands of the jail’s employees and mismanagement by its leadership.
Once the investigation began, many jail staff members, community members, and inmates previously incarcerated at the jail came forward with additional information that corroborated the allegations of inappropriate and unsafe behavior by county staff.
The results of the investigation uncovered not only the suspected activity that results in criminal charges, but a culture of pervasive, unacceptable correctional practices, such as sleeping on duty, providing inmates with video games, and holding barbeques for select inmates.
Utah Department of Corrections places the safety of our facilities as the top priority. Under its previous management, the Daggett County Jail was not safe for the inmates or the public. Those responsible for these inmates and the management of this jail failed to properly manage staff disciplinary actions and significantly downplayed the severity of these acts.
We would like to note there were many good correctional officers and staff employed by the jail, whose reputations should not be tarnished by the actions of a handful of staff and the leadership.
We are currently working with county officials. We will not return any state inmates back to this jail unless and until we have confidence the new leadership at the jail holds safety and security as its main concerns.”
Utah Department of Corrections contracts with 20 county jails to house about 1,500 state inmates. The Inmate Placement Program was created in 1987 to address overcrowding at the state’s correctional facilities. Counties are paid per inmate at a rate of $52 per day.
This happens too often in every jail. I know of many instances of sad, inhumane treatment in other county jails. These guards are no better than the inmates and in some cases worse.