Charges against a man beaten at the Camden County jail have been dropped.
Footage released in November showed several corrections officials beating Jarrett Hobbs inside the Camden County Detention Center on Sept. 3
The encounter caught on camera resulted in 10 additional charges against Hobbs, who was initially brought in on drug and traffic allegations.
Now, three of those corrections officials are the ones accused of battery.
All 13 charges against Hobbs have been dropped. In dropping the charges, a local prosecutor said that there is insufficient evidence that Hobbs committed assault, battery and obstruction at the jail and that the state isn’t prosecuting Hobbs’ drug and traffic charges in the interest of justice.
“It’s a good day,” Harry Daniels, an attorney representing Hobbs, told News4JAX on Thursday.
Daniels said the release of the video is what turned the case around.
“This would not even be a conversation. It’d be Mr. Hobbs being charged with felonies in Camden County and possibly being subjected to years in the Department of Corrections,” Daniels said.
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After the footage was made public, Hobbs’ attorneys in November called on federal civil rights investigators to examine the case.
“The Department of Justice is involved,” Daniels said.
Timothy Bessent, president of the Camden County branch of the NAACP, said he wants to see change in the culture at the jail.
“I think it needs to be more training,” Bessent said. “But more important, I think it needs to be more accountability.”
A spokesperson with the Camden County Sheriff’s Office told News4JAX that they have not had any contact with the Department of Justice.
Daniels wouldn’t disclose the settlement amount, but he said it’s significant and his client is happy with it.