Miami federal jury fails to reach verdict in prison brutality trial
The crime scene was a mop closet. The weapon was a broomstick. And the accused was a correctional officer.
But on Tuesday, an indecisive federal jury deadlocked on finding Terrance Reynolds, 29, guilty or innocent of hitting one youthful offender with the broomstick in the closet and punching another inmate in a disciplinary room at a state correctional facility in Miami-Dade County two years ago.
The hung jury, following four days of deliberations, means that federal prosecutors will likely retry Reynolds on charges of conspiring to violate the inmates’ civil rights and depriving them of those rights while in custody, along with lying to the FBI about committing the alleged acts of brutality at the South Florida Reception Center. Reynolds, who was hired as a state correctional officer in 2015 and fired at the end of last year, was facing up to 40 years in prison if convicted at trial before U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke. He remains free on bond while the U.S. Attorney’s Office decides whether to pursue a second trial.
During closing arguments last Thursday, federal prosecutors said Reynolds joined forces with another correctional officer, Brendan Butler, who had pleaded guilty and testified against his former co-worker at the state youthful offender facility in Doral.
At the Miami trial, prosecutors portrayed Reynolds as a bully who resorted to brutality to teach lessons to the youthful offenders, who committed serious crimes but were held separately from adult inmates because they were 24 years old or younger. Prosecutors claimed that Reynolds, in tandem with Butler, carried out abusive conduct and hid it all from correctional supervisors because there were no surveillance cameras to record the alleged beatings.
“Again and again, the defendant chose the path of concealment, lies and abuse,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Samantha Trepel told the 12-person jury Thursday, after a two-week trial. “[But] today, there is no more hiding, no more more dark closet and no more concealment.”
Trepel reminded the jurors of the testimony of Reynolds’ co-worker, Butler, the former correctional officer who resigned after the inmate attacks and was sentenced to two years in prison. “Sgt. Butler came in here and publicly admitted that what he did was wrong,” she said.
Reynolds’ defense attorney, Antonio Valiente, said that Butler, 30, was the bad guy in the alleged beatings, not his client. He said Reynolds’ only failure was not reporting Butler’s abusive conduct.
“But you don’t have to make a federal case out of it,” he said, taking a jab at the prosecution.
“It’s Butler; it has nothing to do with Terrance Reynolds,” Valiente said. “Butler made a [plea] deal to save 40 years of his life,” suggesting that was the time he would have faced in prison without cooperating with the feds.
“Don’t put that on Mr. Reynolds. We have an innocent man here today,” he said. “You have to admit reasonable doubt does exist.”
The jury apparently couldn’t decide one way or the other.
At trial, prosecutors not only called Butler and other correctional officers as witnesses but also two youthful offenders who witnessed the alleged beating of a third inmate in the mop closet on March 17, 2017.
According to evidence and court records, Butler and Reynolds took the three youthful offenders into the mop closet of the “Bravo” dormitory to intimidate them. Once inside, the officers confronted them about disrespecting female correctional officers.
When one youthful offender, Andre Lopez, laughed and talked back, Butler slapped him in the face, according to testimony and records. Lopez tried to punch Butler but missed, and then attempted to tackle him. Butler pushed Lopez to the floor of the mop closet and told Reynolds that he wanted to fight him “one on one” — a commonplace occurrence at the Miami-Dade facility but a violation of state correctional rules.
After the initial fight in the mop closet, Reynolds took the other two youthful offenders, Yandro Lopez-Malpica and Michael Burcks, out of the closet and returned with a broomstick in hand. Reynolds beat the remaining inmate, Andre Lopez, around the legs, prosecutors said.
They pointed to medical photos taken four days after the assault showing large welts and bruises on Lopez’s lower extremities.
In another incident on March 28, 2017, Burcks was accused of spreading a rumor that Butler had been beaten up by Lopez in the mop closet. For punishment, Burcks was taken to solitary confinement in the “Echo” dormitory.
Butler and Reynolds went to visit Burcks in the Echo dorm, where they found him sitting down and handcuffed in the breezeway, according to testimony and records. Reynolds removed his handcuffs and told him to go to the “disciplinary room.”
Inside, Reynolds and Burcks launched into a one-on-one fight, with the correctional officer punching him in the stomach and forcing him to the floor, according to testimony and records. Butler asked Burcks why he was spreading false rumors about the mop closet altercation, and then slapped and punched him in the stomach.
“They did this because they thought they could get away with it,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Dobbins told the jury on Thursday.
Dobbins also fired back at Reynolds’ defense attorney for mocking the prosecution’s case.
“We are not here making a federal case because Mr. Reynolds failed to file an abuse report,” he said. “We’re here today because this defendant and Brendan Butler took three inmates into a mop closet and beat one of them with a broomstick.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 2:00 PM.