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Illinois prison guard pleads guilty in inmate assault

Posted July 19, 2017 7:00 am

The Associated Press

BENTON, Ill. (AP) - A southern Illinois correctional officer has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges accusing him of assaulting and injuring a handcuffed inmate.

Federal prosecutors say 30-year-old Dustin A. Fleming of DuQuoin (doo-KOYN') entered the plea Tuesday to a charge of depriving an inmate of his federal civil rights. Prosecutors say the charge alleges Fleming choked, punched and kicked the Pinckneyville Correctional Center inmate without legal justification.

Fleming has been on administrative leave from the Illinois Department of Corrections since the Oct. 15, 2016, incident. He is to be sentenced Oct. 18. Prosecutors say he faces up to a decade in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.

Illinois State Police investigated the case with assistance from the FBI and the Illinois Department of Corrections.

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