Four officers in now-disbanded police unit charged in cover-up of 2020 beating

BATON ROUGE, La. — Four officers associated with a now-disbanded Baton Rouge Police Department unit have been indicted by a Louisiana grand jury on charges they covered up the beating of a suspect in custody.

The allegations arise from an attempt at strip search in September 2020, when two officers from the Street Crimes Unit allegedly beat a suspect and shocked him with their stun guns. The episode was captured on body-worn cameras that the officers were unaware were turned on.

The four were members of the unit. They were charged with alleged malfeasance in office and charges related to obstruction of justice, Baton Rouge news stations said.

The assault happened after police stormed an area where a video clip was being filmed, according to warrants. A suspect was taken to the police station to be searched in the bathroom. Documents show that the suspect was stripped naked and beaten for not following the rules.

One of the officers pulled out his Taser and his body-worn camera was immediately activated.

According to the arrest warrant for the officers, the camera was later hidden and never returned. The accused officers later conspired to write a letter, falsely claiming the body camera was missing or lost, the department said.

The charges come as the FBI conducts a civil rights investigation into allegations made in lawsuits last year that agents assaulted inmates at an obscure warehouse known as the “ Brave cave.”

Shortly after the allegations were made, Mayor Sharon Weston Broome ordered the facility closed. The police have disbanded the street crime unit.

“This was an isolated incident. This is not an indictment of the Baton Rouge Police Department,” District Attorney Hillar Moore said Tuesday at a news conference to announce the charges.

“These charges reaffirm our commitment to police reform and accountability,” Broome said in a news release. “The charges should not reflect the vast majority of Baton Rouge police officers’ commitment to professionalism.”