WASHINGTON, May 24 (UPI) -- A former guard has pleaded guilty to assaulting an inmate at Roxbury Correctional Institution in Maryland and conspiring to cover up the assault, the FBI said.
Jeremy McCusker pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court, acknowledging he and other RCI officers assaulted the inmate -- identified only as K.D. -- during the midnight shift March 8-9, 2008, to punish him for striking an officer, Roy L. Austin Jr., deputy assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a news release.
"Mr. McCusker has admitted that he and other correctional officers assaulted an inmate in order to punish him and that they subsequently conspired to cover up their criminal conduct," Austin said.
McCusker is the sixth former RCI officer to enter a guilty plea in federal court in the case, the FBI said. The others are Ryan Lohr, Philip Mayo, Dustin Norris, Walter Steele and Lanny Harris.
McCusker could be sentenced to as much as 15 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Aug. 23.
Nine other current or former RCI officers face federal charges in connection with the assault.
