Former Olive Branch, Mississippi, Police Officers Plead Guilty in Civil Rights Case

Former Olive Branch, Mississippi, Police Officers Plead Guilty in Civil Rights
Case

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Grace Chung Becker, Acting
Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division,
together with Jim M. Greenlee, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of
Mississippi, and Frederick T. Brink, Special Agent in Charge of the Jackson,
Miss., Division of the FBI, announced today that a former assistant chief of
police and a former police officer with the Olive Branch Police Department
(OBPD) have both pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from a civil
rights investigation. Adam McHann, a former canine officer, pleaded guilty to
using excessive force and violating the civil rights of an arrestee, and Scott
Gentry, the former assistant chief, pleaded guilty to conspiring with another
OBPD supervisor to obstruct a federal investigation into a civil rights
offense.

McHann, 37, and Gentry, 38, pleaded guilty in federal court in Oxford,
Mississippi. The two defendants, along with former OBPD Major Michael Todd
Fulwood, had been indicted by a federal grand jury for crimes stemming from
the physical abuse of a young man arrested on March 8, 2003, in Olive Branch.
The indictment alleged that on that date, McHann violated the young man's
civil rights by repeatedly ordering a police dog to bite and maul him. The
indictment further alleged that when another police officer attempted to file
a complaint about Officer McHann's unjustified use of the police dog,
Assistant Chief Gentry and Major Fulwood conspired to cover up the dog bite
incident. Fulwood previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to obstruct the
federal civil rights investigation.

As part of today's plea agreements, McHann admitted that he had no legal
justification for releasing his canine on the arrestee, and Gentry admitted
that he conspired with Fulwood to pressure another officer not to report
McHann's unjustified use of the canine.

The Civil Rights Division is committed to the vigorous enforcement of every
federal criminal civil rights statute, such as those laws that prohibit the
willful use of excessive force or other acts of misconduct by law enforcement
officials. In Fiscal Year 2007, the Criminal Section convicted the highest
number of defendants in its history, surpassing the record previously set in
Fiscal Year 2006. The Division has compiled a significant record on criminal
civil rights law enforcement prosecutions. During the last seven years, the
Criminal Section obtained convictions of 53 percent more defendants (391 v.
256) in color of law cases than the previous seven years.

This case was investigated by special agents from the Jackson Division of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by Senior Litigation
Counsel Gerard Hogan and Trial Attorney Evan Rikhye of the Civil Rights
Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Coleman.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2007, or TDD, +1-202-514-1888