Appeals court upholds conviction of sheriff's officer who stood silent as another officer beat an inmate for 10 minutes in a jail chapel

The appeal US v. BroussardOn appeal, Broussard argues that his guilty plea was invalid and that his sentence [54 months] was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. We AFFIRM [the lower courts decision].In April 2011, Byron Lasalle used a baton to beat a handcuffed and compliant inmate in the chapel of the Iberia Parish Jail in New Iberia, Louisiana. Broussard outranked Lasalle and the other deputies in the chapel and knew he had a duty to intervene. Yet, Broussard stood silent in the chapel as Lasalle beat, kicked, and punched the inmate, S.S., for about ten minutes. Among the acts of brutality Broussard silently witnessed was Lasalle’s placing one end of the baton between his legs and the other end into S.S.’s mouth, forcing S.S. to mimic fellatio. Once S.S. started choking from the baton in his mouth, Broussard left. Broussard never intervened in this violence against the inmate.In the past, Broussard’s unit brought at least five inmates into the chapel and beat them in retaliation for misconduct. The officers purposefully selected the chapel for beating inmates because there were no cameras there to document the abuse. This abuse occurred regularly and was primarily perpetrated by Broussard’s unit, the narcotics unit. The officers were told by superiors to “take care” of inmates, which Broussard understood to mean taking the inmates to the chapel and beating them.