USA: Former inmates accused of “torturing” with ‘Baby Shark’

Attorneys for three former inmates filed the civil rights lawsuit Monday in federal court in Oklahoma City, as reported by The Oklahoman newspaper.

Daniel Hedrick, Joseph “Joey” Mitchell and John Basco sued Oklahoma County Sheriffs, Police Chief Tommie Johnson III, the jail trust and two former guards, describing their disciplinary tactics as “Torture events”.

A criminal investigation conducted last year determined that at least four inmates were held to a wall, with their hands handcuffed behind their back, while the song played over and over at high volume for hours in two separate incidents in November and December 2019.

In the lawsuit, attorneys rated the continued reproduction of “Baby Shark” as a well-known device to torment. They noted that in West Palm Beach, Florida, they played the children’s song at full volume outside an event center in 2019 to prevent the homeless from spending the night there.

The fourth former prison inmate, Brandon Newell, did not join the lawsuit as he was convicted of first degree murder a month after the “torture”And was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As a result of the investigation, two former prison employees, Gregory Cornell Butler Jr. and Christian Charles Miles, both 21 years old, and their supervisor, Christopher Raymond Hendershott, aged 50, they were charged with minor crimes of cruelty towards a prisoner and conspiracy.

The jury trial in the criminal case is scheduled for February.