Former Powell County Detention Center Deputy Indicted for Conspiring with Inmates to Assault Victim and Lying to Federal Investigators

A federal grand jury in Lexington, Kentucky, today returned a four-count indictment charging Jamie Derickson, a former deputy of the Powell County Detention Center, with violating the civil rights of an arrestee by conspiring with inmates at the detention center to assault the arrestee in a jail cell. Derickson is also charged with lying to the FBI about the assault.

The indictment alleges that on Aug. 17, 2016, Derickson conspired with several inmates in the jail, agreeing that the inmates would assault the arrestee after Derickson placed him in the cell. When the arrestee entered the cell, the inmates assaulted the arrestee, causing bodily injury. The indictment also alleges that Derickson violated the arrestee’s constitutional rights by aiding and abetting the inmates’ assault of the arrestee, and by being deliberately indifferent to the known serious risk that the victim would be assaulted.  Finally, the indictment alleges that Derickson later lied to special agents of the FBI when he claimed to them that, at the time he placed the arrestee in the cell, he did not know that the inmates were going to assault him.

If convicted, Derickson faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years for each civil rights offense and five years for lying to investigators.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The FBI conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Hydee Hawkins of the Eastern District of Kentucky and Trial Attorney Zachary Dembo of the Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.