Former Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s
sergeant, Althea Mallisham, 52, has been sentenced to 61 months in prison for
civil rights convictions for wrongfully using a Taser against three detainees
during separate incidents over a four month period in 2008.
On Nov. 16, 2011, Mallisham pleaded guilty to
three felony civil rights offenses at which time she admitted that on separate
occasions while she was on duty as a Tuscaloosa Sheriff's sergeant and acting
under color of state law, she used an X26 Taser to electro-shock three
pre-trial detainees as a means of punishment.
In each instance, the pre-trial detainees were either restrained in
handcuffs or securely locked in a jail cell.
None of the three detainees posed a physical threat to any officers or
other detainees when they were electro-shocked.
In each instance, Mallisham willfully exceeded and abused her authority
under state law.
“Law enforcement officers who abuse
their power to maliciously subject those in their custody to extreme pain will
be held accountable,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the
Civil Rights Division. “The Justice
Department will continue to vigorously prosecute those who cross the line to
engage in acts of criminal misconduct.”
“Officer Mallisham took an oath to
uphold the law. Virtually all of our law
enforcement officers respect their oaths and the power they are entrusted with
to enforce the law, and they perform their duties with honor and integrity,”
said Joyce White Vance, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of
Alabama. “Mallisham, however, violated
her oath and broke the law. Today, she
has been held accountable and sentenced to five years in prison.”
This case was investigated by the
Tuscaloosa resident agency of the FBI’s Birmingham Field Office. The case was
prosecuted by Trial Attorney D.W. Tunnage of the Justice Department’s Civil
Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Tamarra Matthews-Johnson for the
Northern District of Alabama.
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