Former DC Corrections Officer Charged with a Federal Civil Rights Violation for Assaulting a Handcuffed Inmate

A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment that was unsealed today charging a former District of Columbia Department of Corrections officer with using unreasonable force.

According to court documents, former D.C. corrections officer Marcus Bias, 26, pushed a handcuffed pre-trial detainee’s head into a metal doorframe while escorting him within the Department of Corrections on June 12, 2019, causing injury to the detainee.

Bias faces a maximum statutory penalty of 10 years in prison for his use of unreasonable force, a term of supervised release, and fines. 

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia, Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division and Assistant Director in Charge Steven M. D’Antuono of the FBI Washington Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Washington Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Anna Gotfryd and Rebekah Bailey of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Truscott for the District of Columbia are prosecuting the case.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.