LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Three workers at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex were fired and one was suspended for 30 days last June after inmates were tased for failing drug tests.
Boone Collins, Robert Grim and Alan Dube were fired and Justin Newsome was suspended on June 27, 2023, according to a 630-page investigation by the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.
The investigative file, obtained by WDRB News under Kentucky's open records law, provides new details about claims first made public in a federal lawsuit filed in March, including the discipline meted out to employees who stood by and watched.
State investigators, however, didn't address in their report a key claim made in the lawsuit — that inmates were forced to drink their own urine or get tased.
The report concluded that the workers told inmates who failed drug tests that the positive urine sample would be thrown away and they wouldn't face internal discipline if they agreed to be tased.
Officers Collins and Grim tased inmates while sergeants Newsome and Dube watched and failed to stop them or take any action, according to the investigation.
The four employees were also found to have lied about their actions. Newsome was only suspended; after providing false information, he eventually admitted the allegations were true.
In all, 24 officers or supervisors were interviewed and investigated for possible misconduct, but the internal investigation provided only includes the outcome for the four officers.
While the four employees punished all denied the allegations at some point, the internal investigation included video footage from April 5, 2023, showing lights from taser usage coming from behind a curtain where inmates were providing urine samples, according to the investigative file.
Several officers and supervisors denied knowing about the tasing, but at least one officer acknowledged seeing an inmate being tased and then his positive urine test being thrown away.
Collins also initially admitted to tasing an inmate after giving him the option of being tased or subjected to administrative disciplinary action for a positive urine test. Collins claimed it only happened once and that a supervisor was aware.
However, he later retracted that admission in a subsequent interview, saying he gave it under stress and he thought "it was the easiest route," according to audio of his interview.
"I was really just stressed out," he told investigators. "I tell people what they want to hear."
The investigation concluded that at least six inmates were tased after failing drug tests. Several inmates told investigators the number was higher.
One of the inmates told investigators an officer said to him, "Either you get tased or take the dirty."
Another said officers "tased the sh** out of me" and that his arm "smelled like burnt skin all night, with scabs on it."
And an inmate who didn't test positive said he heard officers make "an announcement, 'If you piss dirty you can take a write-up or let us hit you with the taser."'
In March, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of seven inmates who claimed they were forced to either drink their own urine or be tased after failing a drug test while in custody.
Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lisa Lamb acknowledged in a statement at the time that some employees were fired and disciplined in other ways.
"This incident was thoroughly investigated, and multiple disciplinary actions were taken including employee terminations," she said last month. She declined to comment on the pending litigation.
In a June 6, 2023 memo to Randy White, deputy commissioner of the Department of Corrections, an investigator said the findings substantiated that staffers were tasing inmates who failed drug tests. The investigative file did not mention inmates being forced to drink their own urine.
"This determination is based on the preponderance of evidence," according to an investigative memo. "This evidence includes video footage, staff and inmate witness statements, electronic Taser evidence log ... and inconsistencies in suspect interviews."
The lawsuit filed by Lexington attorneys Joseph Buckles and Greg Coulson claims supervisors and officers attempted to "cover up" the actions and provided false statements to internal investigators.
Grim, for example, told investigators officers didn't tase any inmates despite being shown a video where inmates appeared to have been tased, according to the investigation. He said officers sometimes played around with tasers to joke with each other.
"I horseplay too much with my friends here and at most you can call me unprofessional around my coworkers," he said.
In an interview Monday, Coulson said, "We have a system where people are incarcerated regularly, either for short periods of time or maybe the rest of their lives, and we understand that prison's not gonna be a pleasant place. But we do insist that individuals who are incarcerated are treated humanely."
He declined to discuss specifics of the lawsuit, including the claims of urine drinking. But Coulson did say, "When I hear allegations like this of skin burnt and things like that, that does not fit with our conception of the 8th Amendment" on cruel and unusual punishment.
Gov. Andy Beshear's office requested an internal investigation after getting an email on May 9, 2023 from the mother of an inmate.
The plaintiffs named in the suit are John Francis, Terry Larue, Eric Williams, Randy McCleary, Samuel Daniel, Tywan Beaumont and Donte Harris.
The inmates are all still in the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex, according to Coulson.
The correctional officers named as defendants are Newsome, Collins, Grim and Dube. They could not immediately be reached for comment.
Warden James Green was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Collins, according to his termination letter, was seen on video using a taser behind a curtain before an inmate is seen leaving and dumping his urine sample in the garbage.
Grim's taser had "skin discharge" on it and he can be seen moving the taser toward an inmate's hands before a flash went off, according to his termination letter.
Dube was a supervisor "and in a position to stop the dangerous action" but "chose not to" and lied to investigations, the investigative file shows.
Newsome was suspended 30 days for also not stopping or reporting the tasings, but unlike the others, he eventually admitted to witnessing an inmate being tased.
This story may be updated.
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