Prison Guard Fired And Arrested For Strapping Inmate To Chair And Pepper Spraying Him
(Note: This is the same jail where deputies killed Mathew Ajibade after restraining him and tasering him multiple times)
Deputy Sgt. Charlesetta Hawkins has been fired after pepper spraying a restrained inmate. The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office (Georgia) said the incident happened on April 18th. In the video, Deputy Hawkins claims that Jonathan Mahone, who is strapped to a restraint chair, spit at her. According to those on scene, Deputy Hawkins then said, “I’ll teach you a lesson.” She then began pepper spraying Mahone twice in his face.
“Do you understand me?” she asks the inmate. “Now you do it again.”
Deputy Hawkins left Mahone strapped into the chair for around 15 minutes before finally wiping the pepper spray from his face.
Video shows Mahone choking and shaking his head side to side for a period of about 15 minutes before Hawkins finally wipes the pepper spray off of his face. Hawkins was taken into custody and charged with cruelty to an inmate, the sheriff’s office announced on Monday.
Statement From Sheriff John Wilcher
It is assault, and he’s going to be charged with that, but there’s no reason for her to pepper spray him when he’s in full restraint sitting in a restraint chair and can’t get up and can’t move. I’m not going to tolerate an inmate being abused, and I’m not going to tolerate my officers being abused by an inmate, and she abused this inmate who was perfectly content being strapped in that chair. I think that she was just in a state that she was upset because the guy spit on her and just lost her cool.
Watch the full, unedited video below.
