Correction at 4:17 p.m on April 7, 2024: A previous version of this story improperly named one of the deputies involved in the jail incident. The officer’s name is Ryan Biegel.
Federal prosecutors are looking into possible civil rights violations by three former Camden County jailers who viciously beat a detainee in September 2022.
The previously unreported federal investigation comes after a Camden County grand jury indicted the three former deputies, Ryan Biegel, Mason Garrick and Braxton Massey, on charges of battery, simple battery and violating their oaths of office as law enforcement officers. They were indicted in May 2023 following national news coverage and outcry over the video of the deputies beating Jarrett Hobbs, of Greensboro, N.C.
The attack on Hobbs, originally arrested by Camden deputies for speeding and possessing marijuana and ecstasy, became the first example of an increasingly apparent pattern among some Camden County Sheriff’s Office deputies who forcefully pulled over motorists and violently beat those detained in the jail. The misbehavior has resulted in five deputies indicted since 2022, hundreds of thousands of dollars paid out in lawsuit settlements, and higher insurance rates after the county’s insurer dropped its coverage.
Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins, who initially asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to look into the Hobbs case, said setting a trial date in the state case was delayed last fall to accommodate the federal investigation into the incident.
“We’re just trying to coordinate our efforts at this point, and we’re not wanting to do anything that’s going to affect their ability to prosecute, either,” Higgins said.
The DA clarified that the existence of the federal investigation does not stop his office from prosecuting those former officers: “We still intend to go forward and prosecute at the state level as well.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Georgia cited Department of Justice policy and declined to comment.
“Our office does not comment on active investigations, including acknowledging whether or not an investigation is taking place,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
Camden County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Larry Bruce said the department did not wish to comment on the federal investigation. Bruce said Sheriff Jim Proctor has made strides to increase de-escalation training for detention center officers since the Hobbs incident.
Re-election campaign underway
Proctor is running for re-election this year as an independent. He is facing two Republican challengers, which include his former top deputy, Kevin Chaney, and a county commissioner who owns a construction firm but does not have law enforcement experience, Trevor Readdick.
Both Chaney and Readdick have made fixing deputy misconduct and jail management problems central planks of their campaign platforms.
Proctor has maintained he is doing the best he can with a tough job market for law enforcement officers and slow improvements to his jail, which both contribute to poor morale and incidents like the one involving Hobbs. Proctor recently secured a pay raise for deputies from county commissioners following a protracted fight over funding.
You must be logged in to post a comment.