Adam S. Pretti, 31, a former deputy with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Memphis, Tenn., to using excessive force during an encounter with a citizen. During his plea hearing, Pretti acknowledged that he abused his authority as a law enforcement officer when, in March 2006, he willfully and without justification used excessive force by striking a man in the head.

The Department announced the arrest of a former trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety who is charged with depriving multiple Latino motorists of their civil rights. According to the four count indictment returned by a federal Grand Jury in Corpus Christi, Texas, on April 8, 2009, Michael Anthony Higgins violated federal law by willfully stealing money from Latino motorists that he had stopped on the highway while working as a trooper.

A former Jackson County, Mo., sheriff’s deputy was indicted on April 7, 2009, by a federal grand jury for violating the civil rights of a teenage girl whom he forced to perform sexual acts in his patrol car. The indictment alleges that Steven W. Burgess, 35, of Independence, Mo., then a deputy sheriff with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, while acting under color of law, deprived a minor child of her Constitutional rights on July 24, 2007.

Four individuals have been indicted on charges of federal civil rights violations relating to the in-custody death of a detainee at the Lucas County Jail in Ohio and an alleged subsequent four-year cover-up of the role that jail personnel played in the death. The indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Toledo, Ohio, was returned today.

Ben Milner, a former deputy sheriff with the Choctaw County, Okla., Sheriff’s Department, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for violating the civil rights of a man during a traffic stop and the civil rights of two inmates at the Choctaw County Jail. The grand jury also indicted Milner on two counts of obstructing justice in connection with the incident involving the inmates.

WASHINGTON – Acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King of the Civil Rights Division announced today that Thomas Houston, former Chief of the Gary, Ind., Police Department, was sentenced to 41 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release for violating the civil rights of a Gary resident in June 2007.

Daryl Lee Fierce, 69, of Charleston, W.Va., pleaded guilty today to a civil rights charge in federal court in the Southern District of West Virginia for using fire to intimidate and interfere with a person’s housing rights. Fierce set fire to the victim’s home because African-American and biracial individuals visited the victim in her home.

Brandit Franco, 33, a former deputy with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office, pleaded guilty to a civil rights charge today in federal court in San Antonio, Texas, for using excessive force against a prisoner while working as a detention officer at the county jail. Franco faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years and a fine of $250,000. A sentencing hearing is set for July 24, 2009.

A federal grand jury in Florence, S.C., indicted three men from Marlboro County, S.C., on charges relating to their attack on an African-American man and two white men in December 2007.

A federal grand jury in Fort Smith, Ark., has indicted five men from the Donaldson, Ark., area on federal civil rights charges as well as charges of making false statements to the FBI.

Former Tippah County, Miss., Deputy Sheriff William Rogers and his son, former Tippah County Deputy Sheriff Jeffrey Rogers, were sentenced in federal court on April 30, 2009, for violating the civil rights of an arrestee by shooting him with a taser unnecessarily.

A former jail administrator at the Cibola County Detention Center in Grants, N.M., was sentenced today to 97 months in prison, two years of supervised release and a $400 special assessment for violating the rights of inmates in his custody at two separate New Mexico jails.

A former Velda City, Mo., auxiliary reserve police officer was sentenced today to 19 years and seven months in prison, three years of supervised release and a special assessment for violating the federal civil rights of a woman he sexually assaulted during a traffic stop and for concealing evidence of his crime from federal investigators.

Special Litigation Counsel Kristy Parker, a senior attorney in the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section, has been selected to receive the 2009 Top Prosecutor Award from the Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE).

William Cozzi, a Chicago police officer, was sentenced today to 40 months in federal prison for violating the federal civil rights of a man whom the officer struck repeatedly with a dangerous weapon while the man was handcuffed and shackled in a wheelchair.

A two-count federal grand jury indictment returned against Karl F. Thompson Jr., a Spokane, Wash., police officer, was unsealed today.

Carlton Moore, formerly an officer with the Memphis Police Department, pleaded guilty on Thursday in federal court in Memphis, Tenn., to three counts of violating civil rights for stealing money from motorists while acting under color of law. Moore faces up to three years in prison.

Arthur Sease IV, a former Memphis Police Department officer, was sentenced today to a prison term of life plus 255 years by Chief Judge Jon P. McCalla in Memphis, Tenn. A jury convicted Sease in February 2009 of 44 counts of civil rights, narcotics, robbery, and firearms offenses.

Jonathan Haynes, a former police officer with the Jackson, Miss., Police Department, was sentenced today for a civil rights violation for stealing money from a citizen during an off-duty encounter.

Brenda Stevenson, an officer with the city of Highland Park, Mich., Police Department, was indicted today by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of using unlawful and excessive force and making a false statement to an FBI agent.

Dustin I. Nix, 21, of Donaldson, Ark., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Hot Springs, Ark., to two federal civil rights charges for his role in a conspiracy to force a woman and her young children from their home in Donaldson because she associated with African Americans.

Feliciano Sanchez, 34, a former officer with the Bell, Calif., Police Department, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Los Angeles to a federal civil rights charge for sexually assaulting a female motorist. Sanchez admitted that on May 16, 2007, he sexually assaulted the victim by forcing her to provide oral sex after stopping her for a traffic violation, according to documents filed in court.

The Department’s Civil Rights Division held a conference today titled 2009 Title VI Conference: Celebrating the 45th Anniversary of the Legislation and Exploring Current Issues in Enforcement at the FDIC Conference Center in Arlington, Va. Approximately 400 representatives from federal, state and local agencies, community organizations and advocacy groups gathered to share new ideas and discuss trends in Title VI enforcement.

Franklin Joseph Ryle Jr., a former Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper, pleaded guilty on July 20, 2009, in federal court in Wyoming to depriving a man of his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures by kidnapping him. Ryle also pleaded guilty to one count of using his firearm in relation to the crime.

Antonio McWherter, a police officer in the East St. Louis, Ill., Police Department, was charged today in a two-count federal indictment stemming from a January 2006 incident in which the officer allegedly punched a handcuffed arrestee in the mouth. The indictment charges McWherter with a felony civil rights violation and with making false statements to the FBI.

A federal jury in Orlando, Fla, found Erin Sharma, a Bureau of Prisons corrections officer, guilty today on felony federal civil rights charges related to a fatal assault on an inmate in March 2005.

A federal jury in San Juan, Puerto Rico, found four San Juan Municipal Police Officers guilty today of felony federal civil rights charges related to the fatal beating of Jose Antonio Rivera Robles.

A federal grand jury in Denver has charged Donald Hertz with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce and with violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act for allegedly threatening an employee of a Colorado abortion clinic.

Eugene Morris, a former correctional officer with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, was sentenced today in federal court in Houston for providing a false statement related to a federal civil rights investigation. Morris was sentenced to two years in prison and two years of supervised release.

Jacob A. Wingo, Richard W. Robbins, Clayton D. Morrison and Darren E. McKim pleaded guilty today and yesterday to conspiring to drive a woman and her children from their home in Donaldson, Ark., because they associated with African Americans. A fifth defendant, Dustin Nix, 21, pleaded guilty to similar charges in July 2009.

A federal grand jury in Miami returned a three-count indictment on Sept. 11, 2009, charging former Dade Correctional Institution (DCI) officers Cordell J. White and Christopher W. Bonnet, current DCI Sergeant Obe D. L’Bert, and former DCI inmate Larry T. Williams with violating, and conspiring to violate, the civil rights of other inmates at DCI.

Former Choctaw County, Okla., deputy sheriff Ben Westley Milner was found guilty today by a federal jury in Muskogee, Okla., of violating the civil rights of three men by assaulting them without legal justification. In one incident, which took place on Oct. 31, 2005, defendant Milner physically abused a truck driver following a traffic stop.

Daniel Earl Danforth, 30, of Minden, La., has been indicted by a federal grand jury for hate crime violations and obstruction of justice charges stemming from a cross-burning in Athens, La., last year near the home of an interracial couple. Danforth was arrested today following the return of the indictment on Sept. 25, 2009.

“One of my highest priorities as Attorney General has been to ensure that the Civil Rights Division will again continue to advance the interests of justice and equal protection for all Americans. Tom is an exceptional lawyer and both the Department and the nation will benefit from his leadership and legal expertise,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

“A noose is an unmistakable symbol of hatred and violence in our nation, conjuring up images of a despicable period in our history. Mailing a noose to an individual who advocates for racial equality sends a clear threat of violence,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

Erin Sharma, a former corrections officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, was sentenced today in federal court in Orlando, Fla., on federal civil rights charges related to the fatal assault of an inmate.

Michael Kennedy was charged with one count of conspiring with others to violate the federal civil rights of inmate Richard Delano and one count of violating Delano’s civil rights by arranging for another inmate to assault Delano.

Judge S. Thomas Anderson sentenced Carlton Moore to 27 months in prison and one year of supervised release after Moore pleaded guilty to stealing money from motorists while acting under color of law.

Dustin Nix of Donaldson, Ark, was sentenced today in federal court in Fort Smith, Ark, on federal civil rights charges related to a conspiracy to drive a woman and her children from their home because they associated with African-Americans.

Daniel Melgoza, a Bexar County, Texas, Corrections Officer, was charged today in a four-count federal indictment with violating the civil rights of two detainees and obstructing justice.

“This officer abandoned his law enforcement role and engaged in a bizarre scheme to target innocent victims for his own personal gain. Officers who abuse their power in this way will be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law allows,” said Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the Civil Rights Division.

Joshua Ryan Jones and Roger Forrester, former corrections officers at the Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tenn., pleaded guilty today to violating the civil rights of an inmate and then lying about it during state and federal investigations.

Thomas Howard Blue Sr., Thomas Howard Blue Jr. and Judson Hartley Talbert pleaded guilty today in federal court in Florence, S.C., to charges relating to the assault of an African-American man and two white men in December 2007.

Jacob Wingo, Clayton Morrison, Darren McKim and Richard Robins were sentenced today and yesterday in federal court in Hot Springs, Ark., on federal civil rights and obstruction of justice charges related to a conspiracy to drive a woman and her children from their home in Donaldson, Ark., because the victims associated with African-Americans.

A federal grand jury in Providence, R.I., has indicted an officer with the Woonsocket Police Department, charging him with violating the civil rights of a 16 year-old juvenile by physically assaulting him, as well as obstruction of justice.

The jury returned guilty verdicts on all four counts of the indictment that charged Michael Anthony Higgins with violating federal law by willfully stealing money from motorists that he had stopped on the highway while working as a trooper.

Daniel Earl Danforth of Minden, La., was convicted by a jury in Shreveport, La., of a civil rights conspiracy, use of fire in the commission of a federal felony, and obstruction of justice in connection with a cross-burning near the home of an interracial couple in Athens, La.

"We need this Civil Rights Museum so that we remember our history, however painful it may be," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

A federal grand jury in Trenton, N.J., has charged Vincent Johnson of Brick, N.J., with threatening employees of five civil rights organizations that work to improve opportunities for and challenge discrimination against Latinos in the United States.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel R. Dominguez sentenced former San Juan, Puerto Rico Police Officers, Carlos Pagan Ferrer, 32, and Juan Morales Rosado, 32, today for their role in the fatal assault by San Juan officers against Jose Rivera Robles, an unarmed civilian.