Former IPSO sergeant gets 30 months for inmate assault

A former Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office sergeant with a Louisiana sheriff’s office was given a 30-month prison sentence for beating a jail inmate and ordering a police dog to bite him, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Sept. 25.

Former IPSO Sgt. David Prejean had pleaded guilty in February to the 2012 assault at the Iberia Parish Jail. Prosecutors said he was a K-9 sergeant with the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office and had been called to the jail to assist with a shakedown.

Court documents state that Prejean was in a jail recreation yard monitoring inmates who had been lined up against a wall, with their hands behind their heads and their heads against the wall. He had ordered one inmate, identified as “M.R.,” not to look at him or move “and to shut up.”

This article originally published in the October 1, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.