HATTIESBURG -- The trial of two former Harrison County jailers recessed early today after some witnesses didn't show up, and the judge denied defense attorneys' motions to try their clients separately because of testimony over the past two days.
Ex-jailer Timothy Brandon Moore this morning described former Capt. James Ricky "Rick" Gaston as "cocky" and running the booking room under a different set of rules than the rest of the jail. According to Moore, Gaston had a motto: "We're kicking ass and not taking names."
Moore said Gaston is the one who instructed him to write a different report on an incident after the report Moore wrote "wasn't false enough." Gaston wanted the use-of-force narrative to match a false report filed by ex-jailer Morgan Thompson, Moore said.
"The cameras were our enemy," said Moore, elaborating that booking officers stuck together, knew what part of the body to strike without leaving a visible mark and knew that beatings outside the view of surveillance cameras could be covered up with false or vague reports.
Moore described Teel as eager to injure inmates who were no threat to others. And according to Moore, Teel is the officer who used a Taser on a naked inmate's private parts and bragged that "it smelled like burning hair and hotdogs."
John Weber, a federal public defender representing Gaston, said the spillover of different sets of testimony involving Gaston and Teel could have "extremely prejudicial effects."
Jim Davis, Teel's court-appointed attorney, said allegations involving Gaston's supervision have nothing to do with claims that Teel abused inmates. Davis, in objections to testimony, repeatedly asked if injured inmates were complaint after the use of force.
In one instance, Moore replied, "Yes, sir. I believe he was unconscious."
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. denied both motions and recessed court early when witnesses the government planned to put on the stand couldn't be reached.
Court resumes at 9 a.m. Thursday as the government continues to present its case.
In testimony earlier Wednesday, former jailer William Jeffery Priest told the court that inmate Chelle Abrams, "loud and boisterous" by nature, yelled and threw a food tray in her holding cell because she had been pepper sprayed at the Harrison County jail without being decontaminated. Priest said booking offers ignored her screams for help. Abrams flushed her eyes with water from a stainless steel toilet in her holding cell and what happened next was filmed in a 10-minute episode recorded by surveillance cameras.
The recordings were displayed in four screens in choppy motions filmed over a 10-minute period. The alleged assaults were difficult to see, but Priest narrated in response to questions. He said Teel backed out of the holding cell after Abrams threw toilet water at him.
Then, Priest said, Teel repeatedly punched her in the face and Gaston repeatedly stunned her with a Taser. Priest admitted he threw the final punch and Abrams, crumpled and bloodied on the cell floor, said, "I'm done."
Former jail employee Melissa Peterson wept as she testified about how she witnessed her friend, Regina Rhodes, straddling Abra Horn in a female cell and punching her in the back. Peterson said she, along with Rhodes, Gaston and another officer, escorted Horn to a holding cell and on the way Horn spat at Rhodes and tried to kick her. Rhodes punched Horn while Gaston watched and remained silent, Peterson testified.
The Sun Herald is in Hattiesburg covering the trial and provides updates online and in Thursday's editions.
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