Former Mississippi Deputy Sheriffs
Sentenced to Serve Time on Civil Rights Violations

Former Tippah County, Miss., Deputy Sheriff William Rogers and his son, former Tippah County Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Rogers, were sentenced in federal court on April 30, 2009, for violating the civil rights of an arrestee by shooting him with a taser unnecessarily.

Chief Judge Michael P. Mills of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi sentenced William Rogers to serve three months in prison and pay a $12,500 fine. He sentenced Jeffrey Rogers to serve five days, and ordered him to be taken into custody immediately. The judge also ordered both defendants to surrender their law enforcement certifications and never to seek law enforcement positions in the future.

The defendants previously pleaded guilty to the civil rights offense and admitted that in June 2007, they used their tasers to attack the victim without justification. The arrestee suffered multiple burns and contusions from the taser attack. After the attack, the defendants stripped the arrestee of his clothing and chained him overnight in an isolation cell. After bragging about the incident to his fellow employees, defendant Jeffrey Rogers misled federal agents who were investigating the incident. In an effort to coverup his misdeeds, defendant William Rogers also filed a misleading police report about the incident.

The case was investigated by the FBI and was prosecuted by two trial attorneys from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Kathleen J. Monaghan and Michael J. Frank, and by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert W. Coleman III of the Northern District of Mississippi