Maryland Correctional Officer Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy Offense Related to Cover-Up of Assault

A correctional officer at the Eastern Correctional Institution (ECI) in Westover, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to obstruct justice, with the purpose of covering up evidence that a fellow officer at ECI had unlawfully assaulted an inmate.

According to court documents, on July 12, 2021, while working at ECI, Daric Evans, 32, learned that another officer had used force against an inmate. Upon learning of the incident, Evans responded to the scene, where he assisted other correctional officers with escorting the inmate to a medical evaluation. During the evaluation, the inmate cried and was visibly injured with blood on his face. The inmate also asserted that he had been assaulted by a correctional officer, Samuel Warren. Evans and several other correctional officers escorted the inmate to a cell for a monitored strip-search. During the strip-search, the inmate was fully compliant and crying. Another correctional officer, David Quillen, filmed the inmate during the evaluation and strip-search.

Following the search, Evans and a number of other correctional officers watched Quillen’s video of the inmate. After watching the video, a supervisory officer commented that the video looked bad and needed to be deleted. Quillen indicated that he would delete the video, and Evans understood that Quillen subsequently did so. In addition, the supervisory officer proposed a cover story for why the video had gone missing, and Evans and other officers agreed to lie about the deletion.  

Following the deletion, Evans and other correctional officers discussed that — as previously agreed — they would lie to investigators about what had happened to the video of the inmate. Evans lied about what happened to the video, including by withholding the information from state investigators and lying to federal investigators.

Warren pleaded guilty to offenses related to his assault of the inmate and cover-up of the assault. Quillen also pleaded guilty to offenses related to the deletion of the video.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland and Acting Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock of the FBI Baltimore Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Baltimore Field Office is investigating the case, with assistance from the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Trial Attorney Erin Monju of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Marquardt for the District of Maryland are prosecuting the case, with assistance from Special Legal Counsel Mark Blumberg of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.