In a disturbing instance of abuse of power, a former Mississippi police officer has pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor charge of deprivation of civil rights. The plea comes after it was revealed that he forced an arrestee to lick his own urine off the floor of a jail cell.
The incident, which took place in Pearl, a suburb of Jackson, has caused a level of outrage at this case of brazen misconduct.
The man, who was being booked after a disturbance at a Sam’s Club on Dec. 23, knocked on the door of a holding cell and said he needed to urinate, prosecutors wrote.
After a period of time, the man urinated in a corner, the document states. Green allegedly threatened to beat him with a phone and commanded him to “lick it up,” prosecutors wrote.
Green stood in a doorway while the man, who gagged and later vomited in a trash can, did so, the document says. Green recorded it on his cellphone, prosecutors wrote.
Green was charged by criminal information March 4, but the case was unsealed Wednesday, according to court records. Informations are typically used by the Justice Department to charge in cases where people have agreed to plead guilty.
Green’s attorney did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday night.
The city of Pearl said it discovered what occurred over Christmas weekend and opened an investigation and sent video to the FBI, a spokesperson for the city said.
According to the charging documents, Green told the suspect “don’t spit it out” during the incident.
Pearl Mayor Jake Windham condemned Green’s actions, noting that, “[t]he proper thing to do was to take the gentleman to the restroom and to not do anything of this magnitude and violate his civil rights.”
The mayor also issued an apology to the family of the victim.
Green has been freed on bond until his sentencing, which is scheduled to take place in May. He is facing up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine. He was ordered to surrender his Mississippi law enforcement certification.
The mayor also affirmed during a news conference that an officer must follow the U.S. Constitution when carrying out their duties:
If you’re going to be a police oficer, you’ve got to do things right and you’ve got to operate within the constitution of the United States. And I feel very strongly about that,” he said during a news conference.
Green resigned from his position after his actions were discovered. He had worked for the Pearl Police Department for only six months before the incident. The mayor indicated that he had worked for other law enforcement agencies previously. It is not known whether he was suspected of having engaged in this type of misconduct in his previous jobs.
This incident represents one of several cases of police misconduct coming out of Mississippi – especially in the Jackson area. However, the swift response from the authorities on this case is a welcome sign. It appears that Green might just face some justice.
