Former Fulton County officer convicted of obstruction

ATLANTA – A federal jury has convicted a former Fulton County Sheriff’s detention officer of obstructing two federal investigations, including a 2008 probe into the death of an inmate.

Curtis Jerome Brown Jr., 42, of Lithonia, was convicted of two counts of writing false incident reports with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, making a false material statement to the FBI and obstruction of justice by making false statements to a federal grand jury, according to officials. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each obstruction of justice count and five years in prison for making a false statement to an FBI agent.

According to prosecutors, Brown, on Aug. 11, 2007, struck a handcuffed inmate at least twice after the inmate “disrupted a headcount by shouting a crude comment to a female detention officer.”

In a separate incident in 2008, Brown and three of his coworkers omitted information from official reports about an inmate’s death. Testimony indicated the officers had an altercation with the inmate about an hour before he died.

“Obstruction of justice by a law enforcement officer is a travesty of justice. This former Fulton County Sheriff’s Detention Officer has now been convicted of lying to the FBI and to a federal grand jury about events that occurred in the Fulton County Jail,” United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said in a statement. “Many unanswered questions remain regarding the beating of one inmate and the death of another, but this jury has held the defendant accountable for his lies during the investigation of these events.”

In rendering its verdict Friday, the jury also acquitted Brown of using excessive force.