Former Alabama Correctional Sergeant Indicted for Assaulting Inmates and Falsifying Report

The Justice Department today announced that a federal grand jury sitting in Montgomery, Alabama, returned a four-count indictment charging former Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) Sergeant Lorenzo Mills, 55, with assaulting three compliant inmates with a wooden baton at ADOC’s Draper Correctional Facility. Mills is also charged with falsification of records for submitting a false written statement in connection with the incident.

The indictment alleges that on Oct. 25, 2020, Mills, while acting in his official capacity as a Correctional Sergeant with ADOC, subjected three inmates to cruel and unusual punishment by striking them with a wooden baton, and that the assault caused bodily injury and involved the use of a dangerous weapon. The indictment further alleges that Mills submitted a false written statement in connection with the incident. Specifically, the indictment alleges that Mills falsely wrote in his statement that he had not used any force against the three inmate victims.

Mills faces a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each of the civil rights charges and 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice offense.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Stewart for the Middle District of Alabama made the announcement. This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Mobile Field Division and ADOC’s Law Enforcement Services Division. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Counts of the Middle District of Alabama, and Trial Attorneys David Reese and Nikhil Ramnaney of the Civil Rights Division.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.