"If you follow the rules, you'll be all right." Preston Wills said that advice from his father, a longtime police officer, stuck with him as he pursued a law enforcement career through a corrections job at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center.
Eight former jailers must report to a federal prison today on guilty pleas to conspiring to deprive the civil rights of inmates.
Just when it seemed prosecution in the civil rights case of jailhouse abuse was ending, loose ends emerged from unexpected testimony in federal court.
A Gulfport father and son - one a former judge, the other a former jailer - are bound for prison for unrelated federal convictions. Their cases are considered Harrison County's most high-profile criminal cases in perhaps 20 years.
The Sun Herald on Tuesday made public the videotaped beating of a Harrison County jail inmate whose death 18 months ago spawned a federal investigation and a growing list of civil lawsuits.
The haunting images of Jessie Lee Williams Jr.'s beating death in the Harrison County jail are at last in the public domain. The so-called "video" is actually the visual testimony of hundreds of individual frames, taken every two seconds and then played with a result not unlike the earliest moving pictures.
The Sun Herald today makes public the videotaped beating of a Harrison County jail inmate whose death 18 months ago spawned a federal investigation and a growing list of civil lawsuits.
The federal government's request to seal exhibits from the trial of two former Harrison County jailers elicited an unexpected announcement: The investigation of inmate abuse is not over.
It was Feb. 4, 2006, the night before Super Bowl XL, when Gulfport police arrested 40-year-old Jessie Lee Williams on misdemeanor charges.
Former Harrison County jailer Ryan Teel stood erect and stoic before a federal jury Thursday evening, then shed a few tears as a deputy court clerk finished reading the verdicts - guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on three counts, including the two that involved the fatal beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr.
A disgraced jailer is facing life behind bars and eight of his co-workers have copped a plea with the federal government, all of which District Attorney Cono Caranna considers a "successful prosecution."
A jury deliberating in the Harrison County jail trial asked for the transcript of Rick Gaston's testimony and that of the two former Baldwin County corrections officers.
U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. set a 1:30 p.m. start time today for jury deliberations after attorneys in the trial of two former Harrison County jailers gave passionate pleas to convict them or find them not guilty.
Rick Gaston rested his case Wednesday in staunch denial of accusations that he knew the Harrison County jail booking officers under his supervision abused inmates.
After attorneys for James Ricky "Rick" Gaston rested their case, the federal government this afternoon offered a rebuttal with incriminating evidence against him.
Former Sheriff's Capt. Rick Gaston has taken the witness stand and denied all allegations that he abused inmates or encouraged those who worked under him to do the same.
Attorneys defending Harrison County Sheriff's Capt. Rick Gaston refute the allegations against him today as testimony resumes in the eighth day of a federal trial alleging a pattern of inmate abuse at the county jail in Gulfport.
Ryan Teel said he never used unnecessary force against any inmate, including Jessie Lee Williams Jr., and maintained he didn't cause the inmate's death.
The prosecution confronted Ryan Teel with conflicting testimony from a sworn statement today before he rested his case and defense began for his co-defendant.
Testifying in court today, former Harrison County jailer Ryan Teel at first denied ever using excessive force against any inmate at the Harrison County jail. In cross-examination, however, Teel admitted he "inappropriately" assaulted an inmate with pepper spray because the inmate kicked him in the groin. The inmate was cuffed and lying on the floor when the incident occurred.
Former Harrison County jailer Ryan Teel testified this morning that he did not use excessive force against inmate Kasey Dion Alves during his trial in federal court.
The federal government rested its case against two former Harrison County jailers Monday after witnesses with plea bargains gave further testimony against the defendants and admitted they "lost touch with humanity" in their own abuse of inmates.
Testimony this afternoon in the defense of former jailer Ryan Michael Teel brought no startling revelations about abuse of inmates by him at the Harrison County jail.
The federal government has rested its case in the prosecution of two former Harrison County jailers.
Former Harrison County jailer Morgan Lee Thompson today testified that the captain in charge of booking knew that officers were abusing inmates and did nothing to stop it. He was referring to James Ricky "Rick" Gaston who is on trial in federal court along with Ryan Michael Teel in a jailhouse abuse case.
The conspiracy trial of two former Harrison County jailers so far has included startling testimony of officers' taunts and torture of inmates, long-term cover-ups and videotapes of an inmate being beaten to death.
Jessie Lee Williams Jr. did not lunge at the Harrison County jail booking officer who kicked him, but raised his arm to fend off the blow and fell over, according to testimony from former members of the booking-room "brotherhood" and a different camera angle of the videotaped fatal beating.
A federal judge released jurors for the weekend after an intense day of testimony ending with a detailed account of the fatal, jailhouse beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr.
Additional testimony and a different camera angle of the beating of Jessie Lee Williams Jr. indicates he may not have lunged at Officer Ryan Teel.
The federal government likely calls Kasey Dion Alves back to the witness stand this morning as testimony resumes in the conspiracy case accusing two former Harrison County jailers of unjustified use of force against inmates.
The silent drama of the videotaped fatal beating of inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr. played out for the first time in public view in a federal courtroom Thursday.
A wide-eyed, somber audience in federal court viewed a second videotaped inmate assault this afternoon shortly after prosecutors played the recorded fatal beating of Jessie Lee Williams Jr.
All eyes focused on monitors in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. of the videotaped beating of Jessie Lee Williams Jr. played before a noon break in the trial of two Harrison County jailers.
Gulfport police officers testifying today said they saw no injuries on Jessie Lee Williams Jr. the night of his arrest.
Harrison County jailers are taught to use force only when needed and to use the minimal level of force to bring an inmate into compliance with orders, according to the testimony Wednesday by Sheriff's Capt. Kenny Rogers.
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, according to a former jailer's testimony today
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.
Graphic testimony in the trial of two former Harrison County jailers Tuesday matched a federal prosecutor's description of a "culture of violence" among officers who "sullied their badges by bad decisions," making the abuse of inmates a sport.
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.
Opening statements in the trial of two former Harrison County jailers begin at 10 a.m. today before an all-white jury impaneled in spite of protests by federal prosecutors.
Attorneys resumed questioning jurors after lunch today before deciding which will hear the criminal case of former Harrison County jailers Ryan Teel and Rick Gaston.
Jury selection starts Monday in a civil rights case that accuses two former Harrison County jailers of conspiring to punish inmates with unjustified use of force and intimidation.
Jessie Lee
Williams Jr. incident in the Harrison County jail booking room (25 minutes)Jessie Lee Williams Jr. being wheeled away on gurney (18 seconds)Jessie Lee Williams Jr. entering the
booking room and the beginning of the assault (narrated, 3 minutes, 46 seconds)Jessie Lee Williams Jr. being bound in a restraint
blanket (narrated, 3 minutes, 8 seconds)Jessie Lee Williams Jr. being restrained in a
special chair (narrated, 4 minutes, 11 seconds)
Complete Harrison County jail trial coverage