LEXINGTON, Ky. _ A former guard at the Shelby County Detention Center in Kentucky has admitted getting inmates to brutally beat a man in the jail because the guard didn't like him.
William Anthony Carey, 30, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to a charge that he violated the constitutional right of the victim to be free from unreasonable force.
The criminal case listed the victim of the attack only by the initials J.R., but a man named Joshua Reece is suing Carey and others over the attack.
Reece, 35, was booked into the jail on Nov. 18, 2015. He was charged with shoplifting after a store employee saw him put two boxes of "fruit rolls" down the front of his pants, according to state court citation.
The items were worth $2, according to Reece's civil lawsuit.
Carey, then a deputy jailer, recognized Reece when he was being booked into the jail, according to a court document.
Carey was married to a woman Reece had dated several years earlier, and didn't like Reece because he believed Reece had abused the woman, according to a court document.
Less than an hour after Reece got to the jail, Carey approached another inmate and asked him to assault Reece.
After Reece went to sleep, that inmate and others brutally punched, stomped and kicked Reece, according to Carey's plea agreement.
Reece claimed in the separate civil lawsuit that 10 to 12 inmates attacked him, and that he didn't get proper medical treatment.
The assailants made Reece shower after the attack to wash away blood and gave him a clean jail uniform to hide evidence of the attack, according to Carey's plea agreement.
When Reece was released a month after the attack, he went to a hospital, where a scan showed he had multiple fractures to his face that required reconstructive surgery.
Reece's lawsuit said he suffered permanent scarring, headaches, blurred vision, memory loss and brain trauma. The complaint is pending.
Carey pleaded guilty in Kentucky state court to a charge of fourth-degree assault and official misconduct. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but the sentence was conditionally discharged for two years, meaning no jail time if he didn't commit other violations.
In the federal case, he faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
The federal government pursued a separate prosecution in the case by charging a civil-rights crime, rather than an assault violation.
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