Mississippi sheriff denies beating claim

JACKSON, Miss. — An attorney says his black client was beaten by white law enforcement officers this month at a Mississippi roadblock, but a sheriff says officers told him the man appeared to be high on drugs and resisted arrest, injuring two officers.

On Monday, attorney Carlos Moore said 28-year-old David Logan walked away from officers but wasn’t running on July 18 in northern Mississippi’s Yalobusha County. Moore said officers used a stun gun and beat Logan, who had to be treated at two hospitals for a broken bone near one eye. He said Logan now has double vision and sleeping problems.

“They roughed him up to the extent that he was out of his clothes,” Moore said.

Moore said he met with Logan and his father Monday, days after a photo posted to Facebook showed a shirtless Logan sitting on a bench in front of a cinder block wall with a gash over his left eye and several streams of blood running down his face. Moore said he did not know the name of the person who took the photo.

In a separate interview Monday, Yalobusha County Sheriff Lance Humphreys said the officers are white but disputed the rest of Moore’s account.

“That’s not even close to what happened,” Humphreys said.

Humphreys said officers from the sheriff’s department, the Water Valley Police Department and Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics were checking driver’s licenses at a roadblock when they pulled over Logan. The sheriff said officers told him that Logan got out of the vehicle and ran toward them twice.

“He lowered his shoulder and tried to go through them,” Humphreys said.

He said the officers used a stun gun on Logan and arrested him but didn’t beat him.

None of the officers involved have been placed on leave, Humphreys said. He said a grand jury will consider whether to indict Logan.