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Louisville Jail
An incarcerated person walks through a section of Louisville’s jail. | Photo by Josh Wood. Josh Wood

A former Louisville Metro Department of Corrections officer has been federally convicted of using excessive force in a 2020 incident that left a pretrial detainee with a broken jaw.

Darrell Taylor, 32, was found guilty on Thursday of using excessive force in an incident where he threw an incarcerated man to the ground and repeatedly punched him until he lost consciousness. According to a Department of Justice press release on Friday, Taylor then lifted the man’s “limp body” and slammed it into the ground head-first.

“Every person in our nation’s jails and prisons has the right to be free from excessive force by corrections officers,” said Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ, in a statement. “With this verdict, the jury makes clear that corrections officers will be held accountable for beating and abusing people in their custody.”

Federal charging documents identified the incarcerated person only by the initials “B.R.”

However, as LEO has previously reported, a federal lawsuit in November of last year filed against Taylor, the city and former LMDC Director Dwayne Clarke by a man named Brandon Robertson describes the incident Taylor was charged for. According to that lawsuit, after Robertson was knocked unconscious by Taylor, he was dragged to a cell and left handcuffed in a pool of his own blood.

Both the lawsuit and the DOJ said he was beaten so bad that he suffered a broken jaw. 

An attorney listed for Taylor in federal court records, Casey McCall, said they were unable to comment.

Taylor is scheduled to be sentenced in January. He faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison. 

A recent report on LMDC by a consultant hired by the city found a “disturbing” tolerance of poor performance and misconduct by staff.

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This article appears in September 28, 2022.

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