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Hillsborough Deputy Used Excessive Force Against Inmate

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TBO.com

Published: February 3, 2009

TAMPA - A Hillsborough County detention deputy will be suspended without pay for a week after a departmental investigation found he used excessive force against a female inmate roughly half his size, officials said.

Deputy Milton Fassett likely will serve his suspension later this month for the Nov. 11 incident at the Orient Road Jail, Sgt. Harry Hoover said.

The findings of the investigation were released this week under a public records request.

According to the findings, Fassett tussled with the 4-foot, 11-inch inmate after she refused to put her blanket on the floor for laundry, saying she had a "wash pass." Fassett reached for her arm, and she jerked away; then he put the 100-pound woman in what was described as an "escort hold" and pushed her against the wall, the findings say.

Fassett stands about 6 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs about 220 pounds. The interaction lifted the woman off her feet, according to video from the jail cited in the findings.

Fassett told investigators that he was trying to "redirect" the woman because he did not want the dispute to incite an inmate nearby with psychological issues. However, when asked whether he felt he had violated department policy when taking the circumstances and his and the woman's sizes into consideration, he said, "Probably, yes."

The woman was not identified; however, she is not the same woman who complained last year that Fassett broke her arm while she was in jail in May, Hoover said.

In that incident, video showed Fassett removing Charlana Irving from a cell after repeated attempts to calm her verbally failed, according to the sheriff's office. As Fassett tried to escort Irving from the cell, she pulled away; Irving later complained of pain in her left arm and a jail clinic determined it was broken, the sheriff's office said.

A sheriff's statement said at the time it was not possible to tell whether the broken arm occurred before or after the altercation with the deputy.

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