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| Inmates say officers set up two beatings |
| By Boston Globe |
| Published: 03/05/2004 |
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Inmates at the House of Correction on Martha's Vineyard say that officers orchestrated the beatings of two inmates in recent months to enforce their will and to settle an old score involving a money dispute between an inmate and the girlfriend of one of the officers. In interviews with the Globe, four current or former inmates provided accounts of beatings, intimidation, and official indifference to their complaints, including a charge that officers recruited an inmate to beat up other prisoners by giving him chewing tobacco to carry out two assaults. "The guards had out their own brand of justice," said Alan Thistle, 52, of South Boston, an inmate who said his nose was broken in an attack after he repeatedly complained to authorities about an earlier beating of an inmate. Thistle said State Police told him on Nov. 18 that an investigation into the beatings "was going nowhere" because of a lack of cooperation from witnesses. Thistle said he heard nothing further and assumed the probe was closed. But Dukes County Sheriff Michael A. McCormack said this week that the investigation is ongoing. McCormack declined to comment further, but a high-ranking county law enforcement official said a State Police detective was ordered this week to conduct new interviews and to ask inmates and officers to take polygraph tests. Witnesses may be called before a grand jury to give sworn testimony, the high-ranking source said. The investigation was revived this week when corrections managers received new information from an inmate implicating one officer in the beating, the high-ranking official said. |
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