Overview

• On August 5, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Georgia indicted former Augusta State Medical Prison officers Robert Roberson and Marcus Phillips on two civil rights counts for alleged deliberate indifference that led to an inmate’s death.
• The indictment adds a third count against Roberson, accusing him of falsifying a logbook to conceal his and Phillips’s failure to respond to the cell fire.
• Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia are handling the case, following an FBI Augusta Resident Agency investigation.
• The charges stem from an October 28, 2020 incident in which the officers reportedly ignored a smoldering fire in a prisoner’s cell, failed to evacuate him or call emergency assistance, and left him to die of smoke inhalation.
• Both defendants have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial under the presumption of innocence guaranteed in federal proceedings.