FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                            CRT

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2008                                             (202) 514-2007    

WWW.USDOJ.GOV                                                                      TDD (202) 514-1888

FORMER OKLAHOMA CORRECTIONS OFFICER PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS CHARGE

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, Grace Chung Becker, and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, Sheldon J. Sperling, announced today that Jarrod Anthony Yates, a former Sequoyah County, Okla., corrections officer, pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of an arrestee.  

On June 25, 2006, at the Sequoyah County Jail in Sallisaw, Okla., Yates punched, kneed and stomped an arrestee on his head and face, which caused serious injuries, including a fractured orbital socket and severe lacerations that required stitches.  

Yates faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.  His sentencing hearing is pending.  

The guilty plea resulted from an investigation by the Oklahoma City Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is being prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Horn, and Trial Attorneys Roy Conn and Michael Khoury from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.