JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Two Jacksonville corrections officers have been charged with battery after an internal investigation revealed they assaulted a handcuffed inmate at the Duval County jail, Undersheriff Nick Burgos announced Wednesday.
Burgos said the investigation revealed that Corrections Officers Olayemi O. Lipede and Micah P. Magwood were escorting an inmate inside the Duval County jail on Aug. 11 when the confrontation took place.
Burgos said video evidence showed the inmate “showed no resistance” during the physical altercation. News4JAX asked JSO about the condition of the inmate following the alleged assault. We’re waiting to hear back.
He said the officers were charged with battery and Lipede, who was still in the probationary period, was fired immediately. Procedures will begin to terminate Magwood also once the criminal investigation is complete, Burgos said.
“Obviously this is not what we would expect from our employees. I want to be clear. When we take people into our custody, they should expect a safe and professional environment, and this type of conduct will not be tolerated,” Burgos said.
Attorney John Phillips, who once represented a client in a similar situation, said these inmates are still innocent until proven guilty.
“And yet, they are sentenced to physical combat or battery, long before their trial occurs. And it’s inappropriate, it’s criminal,” Phillips said.
He said what the men did was a breach of public trust.
“If the thin blue line or, you know, forced retirement covers this stuff up, it’s going to continue to happen. But if prosecutors prosecute and police arrest, and make an example out of the bad officers, the bad officers will go away,” Phillips said. “And then there’s an increased public trust with the good officers that are heroes and doing their job effectively.”
Magwood, 26, had two previous incidents investigated by Internal Affairs. In 2021, he was given formal counseling for failure to conform to work standards. In 2022, he received a written reprimand for violating the response to resistance policy and failure to conform to work standards.
Lipede, 57, is a former Florida Department of Corrections officer, having worked at the Lake Butler Assessment Center. In 2019, he was arrested on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge involving his 18-year-old daughter being punched in the face “out of anger.” That charge was later dropped.
Phillips said inmates are easy to abuse for those who have a violent history.
“We see it time and time again, and it’s still a fraction of the overall police force that it involves, but everybody’s heard the expression where there’s smoke, there’s fire, where there’s a history of violence, there’s a tendency to use violence,” Phillips said.
JSO has now arrested six corrections officers this year and 11 employees overall.