Faces Up to a Decade in Prison for Violating Arrested Person’s Fourth Amendment Rights: Feds
MISSISSIPPI — An ex-Mississippi law enforcement officer who worked with a U.S. Marshals task force pleaded guilty this week to using excessive force by hitting a handcuffed suspect in the face almost three years ago.
John Winstead was a Mississippi Bureau of Investigations officer assigned to the Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Winstead faces up to a decade in prison upon sentencing at a later date in U.S. District Court.
Court evidence showed that Winstead knocked the handcuffed suspect to the ground after striking him in the face on Sept. 16, 2021. Winstead’s actions represented a willful deprivation of the arrested person’s Fourth Amendment rights.
The arrested person is only identified by the U.S. Department of Justice as K.K.H. A DOJ news release adds that K.K.H. was being “escorted safely” by another officer when Winstead hit him in the face and knocked him on the ground.
Winstead “violently abused his power” by unnecessarily striking a handcuffed suspect who posed no threat, according to Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
The DOJ news release also states that, “The FBI will not tolerate violation of anyone’s civil rights, regardless of incarceration status.”
