Correctional Officers Charged With Abusing Inmates

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Two correctional officers have been charged for physically abusing inmates at the Milwaukee County Jail and falsifying reports about the incidents.

Marques T. Reeder and Rafael Gomez III are both facing felony charges for two separate incidents of excessive use of force on Sept. 24, 2024 when they beat and pepper sprayed inmates being held in a suicide watch pod. In one instance Gomez beat an individual over the head with a a can of OC (pepper) spray and Reeder rubbed the spray into his eyes. The man later reported losing sight in his left eye.

The charges were filed following an investigation by the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO). Each count carries a potential sentence of a $10,000 fine and up to three-and-a-half years in prison.

The first incident began in the morning. The victim, an inmate referred to in the criminal complaint as SEH, was handcuffed to a bench in the pod. He told investigators Reeder had threatened him on a previous occasion, was witholding meals and that when he was served food it appeared tampered with. Another corrections officer confirmed that Reeder had previously threatened SEH. He had been flooding his cell so that jail staff would handcuff him to the restraint bench, he told investigators, explaining that if he had to be in that specific pod he would rather be on the bench where there is a camera to capture what happens.

That morning, after eating breakfast, SEH told the officers he had swallowed a piece of metal and was having trouble breathing. When he was interviewed, Reeder specifically said SEH had swallowed a screw. A nurse was called. When they arrived SEH had stripped naked and had been threatening staff and spitting at officers. The nurse recommended SEH be taken to the clinic for an X-Ray.

When Gomez and Reeder tried to stand him up and dress him SEH was resistive, according to video footage decribed in the criminal complaint. They tried to pin him against a window but he continued to “actively resisting by tensing his muscles and pulling his body away from the window.”

The correctional officers brought him to the ground and began to beat him. Gomez hit him twice in the abdomen and chest. He pulled out a can of OC spray and sprayed two bursts in his face. Then he hit SEH twice in the head with the can of OC spray and Reeder hit him in the face with his hand. Gomez sprayed him again. Then Reeder grabbed SEH by his dreadlocks and rubbed the OC Spray into his face.

Throughout all of this SEH hands were restrained at his waist. His resistance took the form of kicking his legs and moving his head and torso, according to the complaint. The officers also continued to use force on him after he stopped resisting.

Both officers gave false statements to investigators when they were interviewed; Gomez stated that SEH hit his own head on the OC Spray can due to his “exaggerated body movements.”

A inmate in the same pod witnessed the beating of SEH. Later that day Reeder and Gomez would beat him, too.

This inmate, referred to in the complaint as TTS, was removed from his cell for threatening to harm himself after making comments saying the officers use of force against SEH was “too excessive.” He was secured to the bench and was threatening to spit on correctional officers and kill Reeder.

Officer Reeder grabbed a 16 oz can of Sabre Red MK-9 spray, which is an OC spray meant to clear cells. The only officers allowed to use it are members of the Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT). He taunted TTS, telling him to “spit” and threatening him with the OC Spray. TTS was restrained and secured to the bench.

Eventually, Reeder pushed TTS back onto the bench and when he stood back up again Reeder sprayed him in the face.

Less than two months prior, Reeder had used the spray in a use-of-force incident. Captain Noel Ybarra, assistant commander of CERT, told a lieutenant to refer Reeder to the MCSO’s Professional Standards Division after hearing about the spray’s use, noting Reeder was not authorized to use it. At the time of the incidents in September, the referral had not yet been made.

After TTS recieved medical care for the OC spray, his restraints were removed and he took his suicide gown off. Gomez gave him a shirt to put on and he refused. Gomez and other officers brought him to the ground and hit him twice. At some point in the melee TTS’s nose was injured and once restrained again he was bleeding from his nose.

Both incidents occurred in a section of the jail used for suicide watch, according to the complaint. A recent third-party audit of the jail found troubling suicide-watch conditions and policies and insufficient training among staff at the facility.