Seven current and former Georgia prison officers have been indicted in alleged beatings of inmates at Rogers State Prison. A Tattnall County grand jury indicted the officers this week on felony charges of making false statements and misdemeanor charges of assault under color office.

The grand jury also returned an indictment against a former Department of Natural Resources ranger for making false statements.

The allegations came to light last year when Tommy Cardell, a former officer at the medium-security prison farm, came forward and said he witnessed routine beatings of handcuffed inmates. Cardell also claimed supervisors, including the warden, were present at some of the beatings and sometimes encouraged them.

Four of the indicted officers were among those fired by the Department of Corrections last year. Only one, Tommy Osborne was still employed by the department at the time of the indictments.

"I'm glad to see they have finally gone forward and indicted some of the people - they still haven't gotten them all," Cardell said Thursday. “I feel like those people are scapegoats for some of the higher-up people.”

Department of Corrections spokeswoman Yolanda Thompson noted the agency asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to investigate once top officials learned of the allegations.

"With the exception of one current employee, all of the indicted yesterday were either terminated, or resigned in lieu of termination ... as a result of the findings of a comprehensive investigation conducted by the GBI at the request of (Corrections) Commissioner James Donald," Thompson said. "We trust the criminal justice process will work as intended as these cases proceed to disposition."

Indicted by the grand jury were: Michael Byrd, on four counts of assault under color of office and one count of making false statements; Keisha Hopkins, on two counts of assault and one count of false statements; Hansford Hunter III, on one count of false statements and one count of assault; Jason Burns, on six counts of false statements; Clinton Howard, on one count of false statements and two counts of assault; Osborne, on one count of false statements and two counts of assault; and John Stewart Wood, on one count of false statements and one count of assault.