FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CRT

MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2007 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Former White County Tennessee

Corrections Officer
Sentenced for Civil Rights Violations
WASHINGTON – Stanley Hawkins, a former corrections officer at the White
County Jail in Sparta, Tenn., was sentenced today in federal court in Nashville to 12
months imprisonment for violating the civil rights of an inmate. After release from
prison, Hawkins will be on federal supervised release for one year.

Hawkins was a supervisory corrections officer at the White County Jail from
November 2002 to September 2004. He was previously convicted at trial of a felony
violation of federal civil rights laws by subjecting an inmate to cruel and unusual
punishment in May 2004 by beating the inmate and throwing a chemical grenade
into his cell as retribution for an earlier misconduct incident.

“This defendant violated the public’s trust and broke faith in the proud history of
integrity and professionalism in law enforcement,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant
Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
“This prosecution demonstrates the Justice Department’s commitment to
aggressively pursuing law enforcement officials who willfully abuse those entrusted
to their custody,” Kim added.

“When inmates are confined to correctional institutions, those charged with their
security are expected to abide by the Constitution and the rule of law in carrying out
their duties,” said Paul M. O’Brien, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of
Tennessee. “When an officer violates those duties by illegally abusing a prisoner, it
is our duty to prosecute that officer in order to punish that illegal conduct, to deter
others from engaging in similar conduct, and to preserve the public trust that honest,
law-abiding officers deserve. We take seriously our duty to preserve the civil rights
of all people, and remain committed to our long history of vigorously prosecuting
civil rights offenses,” said O’Brien.

Hawkins’ co-defendant, former White County Jail Administrator Donald Wilson,

was sentenced to a 33-month term on June 25, 2007. Hawkins was convicted of his
role in the grenade incident and for confining the same inmate in a small holding
cell amid human waste and requiring the inmate to be physically restrained in a
strait jacket each day for period of three weeks.

The Civil Rights Division is committed to the vigorous enforcement of every federal
criminal civil rights statute, such as those laws that prohibit the willful use of
excessive force or other acts of misconduct by law enforcement officials. The
Division has compiled a significant record on criminal civil rights prosecutions. In
the past six fiscal years, as compared to the previous six years, the Criminal Section
filed 25 percent more color of law cases and obtained convictions of 50 percent
more such defendants.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S.
Attorney William Cohen and Trial Attorney Stephen Curran from the Civil Rights
Division of the Department of Justice prosecuted the case.

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