Sacking demanded after jail house assault
Attorneys for a Georgia jail detainee recorded by security cameras being punched by guards repeatedly in the head and neck called yesterday for the deputies to be fired and arrested, insisting the videos show the violence was unjustified.
‘‘There is no way in hell that anybody should be beaten the way this man was beaten,’’ Harry Daniels, an attorney for the detainee, told reporters. ‘‘I don’t care what he did. I don’t care if he knocked the damn door down. You don’t beat a person like that.’’
Jarrett Hobbs, a 41-year-old Black man from North Carolina, was booked into the Camden County jail in coastal Georgia on September 3 on traffic violation and drug possession charges.
Security video from the same night shows Hobbs standing alone in his cell before five guards rush in and surround him. At least three deputies can be seen landing punches before Hobbs gets dragged from the cell and hurled against a wall.
Two of Hobbs’ sisters joined his lawyers yesterday for a news conference on a courthouse square within view of the jail where the violent confrontation took place.
His siblings said they want justice for their brother, whose story even they initially found hard to believe.
‘‘He literally told me that he didn’t do anything wrong, they just came in and beat’’ him, said Taylor Wood, one of Hobbs’ sisters. ‘‘I’m like: Are you sure? It’s kind of hard to believe. And then you see the video and he really didn’t do nothing.’’
Camden County Sheriff Jim Proctor, who oversees the jail, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation have announced they are conducting separate investigations.
Hobbs’ attorneys are questioning why the sheriff didn’t investigate sooner, considering the incident involving Hobbs happened more than two months ago.
Hobbs was charged immediately with fighting the guards.
Captain Larry Bruce, the sheriff’s spokesman, declined to answer questions yesterday about the timing of the internal investigation and whether the deputies in the video remained on duty.
The sheriff’s office has not released the names or races of the deputies involved.
‘‘The two independent investigations limit comment for now from the Sheriff’s Office,’’ Bruce said in an email.