NPR News, Classical and Music of the Delta
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

7 Ex-Sheriff's Deputies Sentenced to Prison in Beatings Case

flickr/Zorin Denu
/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Seven former sheriff's deputies have been sentenced to prison terms stemming from a Justice Department investigation of prisoners' beatings at a Louisiana jail.

A federal judge in Lafayette on Tuesday sentenced the former Iberia Parish sheriff's deputies to prison terms ranging from six months to more than four years.

Sheriff Louis Ackal was acquitted last year of federal civil rights charges. Ten of Ackal's deputies pleaded guilty and had agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their case against the sheriff.

Ackal was accused of ordering inmates to be beaten in retaliation for a lewd comment and complaints about jail conditions.

Ackal's indictment claimed he directed officers to assault inmates in the parish jail's chapel, where no surveillance cameras would record the April 2011 beatings.