Four Philadelphia correctional officers are facing federal criminal charges for severely beating an inmate at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility and covering up the incident, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wednesday.
Three guards – Jahaan Andrews, 34, Oneil Murray, 31, and Mumin Hart, 43 – and their supervisor, 58-year-old Georgia Malloy, were indicted in relation to the assault and falsification of records, all of which occurred in October 2020.
Andrews is accused of placing a male inmate in a holding room because he was apparently wearing the wrong color jumpsuit, prosecutors said. He, Murray, Hart and a sergeant, Ronald Granville, took the man back to his cell to change, according to authorities.
The officers ordered him to strip down, and, once he was naked, they punched and kicked him, knocking him to the ground, investigators allege.
The inmate, who was identified in court documents only by his initials, V.H., “was hospitalized with injuries to his face, ribs, and scrotum, and had to undergo emergency surgery,” according to the grand jury report.
V.H., like most incarcerated at the city’s Northeast Philadelphia jail complex, was being detained pre-trial. The charges against him were not specified, though the case was later withdrawn, the indictment said.
In the aftermath of the beating, the guards filed use-of-force paperwork that exaggerated the inmate’s aggressiveness and downplayed the assault, prosecutors said. Malloy is accused of doing the same in her investigative report.
Andrews was also charged with lying to law enforcement for allegedly telling an FBI agent that V.H.’s testicles were already “severely damaged” prior to the incident, among other false statements, according to the indictment.
Granville pleaded guilty to civil rights violations and falsification of records related to the same case in January 2023, though he has yet to be sentenced, court documents show.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office credited the Philadelphia Department of Prisons for providing “significant assistance” in developing the prosecutions. PDP and Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Each of the defendants could face decades in prison if given the maximum penalty, the U.S. Attorney’s Office noted.
Andrews’ attorney declined to comment, and lawyers for Murray did not respond to a request for comment. Malloy’s counsel could not be reached, and Hart’s could not be identified through court records.
