(WBIR - COOKEVILLE) Special agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have obtained indictments from five men in two separate cases in connection to the mistreatment of inmates in the Morgan County Jail.
Four of the men indicted are Morgan County corrections officers, and one is an inmate.
Correction officer Denny Hughett, 31, of Wartburg is charged with two counts of official misconduct and one count of coercion of a witness in the first case, which began Nov. 24, 2015. An inmate’s family accused officers of encouraging the assault of an inmate on Nov. 21, 2015.
A grand jury also indicted inmate Samuel Jennings, 39, with one count of aggravated assault.
Hughett was booked into the Roane County Jail on $3,000 bond after turning himself into TBI agents. Authorities notified Jennings of his charge Wednesday at the Sequatchie County Jail, where is being held on unrelated charges.
In the second case, TBI agents investigated allegations of assault on an inmate stemming from an incident alleged to have occurred on Dec. 12, 2015. TBI agents developed information that three correction officers assaulted an inmate while improperly attempting to restrain him inside the jail.
Correction officer Joe D. Shoffner Jr., 43, of Wartburg is charged with one count of official misconduct and one count of assault.
A grand jury also charged corrections officers Garren Austin Luke Cooper, 20, and Michael Alan Lloyd, 22, both of Wartburg, with one count of assault.
Shoffner, Cooper and Lloyd were booked into the Roane County Jail.
