Feds cost St. Louis jail employee, Northwoods police officer with civil rights violation | Regulation and order

ST. LOUIS – A St. Louis City Justice Center employee and a Northwoods police officer were separately indicted and charged with assault by a federal grand jury on Wednesday.

An indictment stated that Edward Barber, a civilian inmate handler at the downtown prison, attacked an inmate identified only as “MLJ” on July 11, 2019. The detainee “was arrested and posed no threat to anyone,” the indictment said.

Barber faces a rights disfranchisement charge based on the color of the law, a civil rights charge. A city spokesman was initially not available to comment.

The second indictment states that on April 15, Michael L. Bennett, a Northwoods police officer, used unreasonable violence and punched someone identified only as “ST” “while ST was not a threat to anyone”. ST was injured, the indictment said. he is now also facing civil rights charges.

Northwood police officers were unavailable Wednesday night for comment.

Further details are not included in the indictment and the federal prosecutor was not immediately available for comment.

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