At one of Florida’s toughest prisons, a sergeant is charged with beatdown, coverup

A sergeant at one of Florida’s toughest prisons — the home of Death Row — has been charged with maliciously battering an inmate, and then coercing a subordinate to write up a phony witness statement saying the prisoner was the attacker.

Era Louise Browning Huskey of Florida State Prison in Starke was jailed in Bradford County this week after the alleged attack, which occurred in June and was alleged by inmates to be part of a pattern of racism and bigotry on the part of the sergeant.

The encounter began when Huskey ordered the inmate, whose name is obscured in the report that was released, to bring a mattress to the dormitory laundry room, the arrest affidavit says. He did as he was instructed. At that time the 5-foot-10, 220-pound Huskey called the inmate into her “office” — which was the inmate restroom area — and began to beat him up, striking him repeatedly about the face and upper torso, the report says.

The sergeant then allegedly ordered corrections officer Maggie Reyes to falsify her incident report to say the inmate attacked Huskey.

Huskey was charged with official misconduct, perjury, malicious battery to an inmate and tampering with or harassing a witness, victim or informant.

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 6:21 AM.