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| FBI opens probe of detainee's beating death |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/20/2005 |
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The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into the beating death of a detainee at a long-troubled Baltimore, Md., jail that has been criticized for crowded conditions, a spokesman for the bureau said Thursday. The FBI will investigate the death of Raymond Smoot for the U.S. attorney's office and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. "We'll coordinate our activities with the state investigators, because they're investigating a homicide," said Barry Maddox, an FBI spokesman with the Baltimore field office. No charges have been filed in the death of Smoot, 51, who was brutally beaten Saturday at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center and died that night at a hospital. Six guards have been placed on paid administrative leave while the state investigates. The NAACP requested the federal investigation Tuesday, saying Smoot's killing and persistent reports of inhumane conditions inside Central Booking warrant a federal probe. Smoot was being held on a theft charge when he was killed. William Smith, commissioner of the Maryland Division of Pretrial Detention and Services, has said Smoot had a history of disciplinary problems at the jail. However, Smith said Wednesday there was no imaginable justification for the severe beating Smoot received. Smith, who oversees the facility, said he hopes criminal charges are filed. Herbert Berry of the Maryland Correctional Law Enforcement Union said officers who witnessed the beating have told him Smoot struck an officer after refusing to enter his cell. "So the other officers, when they came on the scene, they came on the scene witnessing an officer being beaten, so they responded to subdue Smoot," Berry said. Correctional officer unions have criticized the facility's management for not providing adequate training or taking action to alleviate long-standing crowding. Adults arrested in Baltimore are identified, fingerprinted and photographed at Central Booking before they appear before a court commissioner. The facility handled 100,000 people last year, more than twice the number it was designed to process. |
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