HATTIESBURG -- Jurors appeared overwhelmed today by testimony regarding a beaten inmate's picture, a recording of an assault on a female inmate and other accounts of abuse by officers at the Harrison County jail.
Evidence presented by federal prosecutors was punctuated by objections from attorneys defending former Harrison County jailers Ryan Teel and Rick Gaston. Testifying for nearly two hours, former jailer William Jeffery Priest responded to questions with graphic details of unnecessary force and bragging, not only by Teel and Gaston, but by other officers as well as himself.
Priest's testimony followed that of two former Baldwin County jailers who said they were prepared to bust out of the Harrison County jail gate to escape with a prisoner assaulted by Gaston, then a captain at the jail. Teel was not involved in that particular incident, according to testimony.
Opening statements began with the government providing fiery accusations of a world of torture at the jail where the government alleges that Teel and Gaston encouraged the abuse of inmates during a period of several years.
In the case involving testimony from Alabama officers, Gaston allegedly assaulted the inmate twice while the deputies were trying to take him out of the jail to move him to Baldwin County on Oct. 10, 2003.
Teel and Gaston are accused of a conspiracy to deprive inmates' rights with excessive, unjustified force and acts to conceal the crimes. They also are charged with individual counts alleging they abused separate inmates at the Harrison County jail in Gulfport.
Teel's charges include the fatal beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr., whose adult family members are attending the trial. Williams is the only alleged victim identified by name in the indictment. Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove ruled Williams' death on Feb. 6, 2006, a homicide at the hands of another at the Harrison County jail.
The prosecutors are federal trial attorneys Lisa Krigsten and John Cotton Richmond, both from the U.S. Justice Department civil rights division in Washington. Also seated at the prosecution table are Special Agent Joel Wallace of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and Ruth Morgan, an assistant U.S. attorney from the Southern District of Mississippi.
Teel, 30, a former sergeant at the jail booking room, is represented by Gulfport attorney Jim Davis.
Gaston, 52, a former captain and the highest-ranking officer accused criminally, is represented by a team of federal public defenders led by John Weber.
If convicted on all counts, Teel and Gaston each face possible penalties that include life in prison.
The Sun Herald is in Hattiesburg to cover the trial and provide updates online and in Wednesday's editions.
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