“BALLING UP HER FIST AND PUNCHING ME IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 22, 2016) — A five-page letter from a Tennessee state prison inmate received on Friday detailed an allegation of assault and unwarranted punishment in “the Hole,” meaning solitary confinement, despite video evidence alleged to show that the inmate did not cause the altercation.
The inmate, Victor McMiller, has not written to The Post & Email in the past but did so at the suggestion of another who has contacted us previously. When the altercation allegedly occurred, McMiller was housed at the Northeast Correctional Complex (NECX) in Mountain City. He has since been moved to the Northwest Correctional Complex (NWCX) in Tiptonville, at the opposite end of the state.
In the letter, McMiller states that he was conferring in the law library with another inmate who was assisting him and that a female correction officer began looking through his papers. “I stated that she could not go threw my Legal work and the Officer stormed out and told another Officer that I had Shovel [sic] her and Grabbed her Arm and she told him to Call a Code for the Officers to come and get me, I was Hand cuffed by Corporal Mr. Cornnett, who took me to the Captain and the Captain asked what had happened and I started telling him what had happened and the Captain told me to be quiet and that he did not want to hear from an inmate that he belived [sic] his Officers over and Inmate and Corporal Mr. Cornnett stated that the Officer Rebecca Gouge and that inmate McMiller Grabbed her Arm and Shoveled her and the Captain said Lock him up and I asked if he was going to listen to my side of the Story and he told Corporal to put me in the Whole and I had someone to call my Family and told them to call Commissioner Scholfied [sic] and have him to run back the Video Camera,” McMiller wrote on page 3.
“And when they did the Video Camera showed that the Officer, Grabbed my coat from behind and with her Fist Bald throw a Punch and hit me in the back of the Head and the Warden of Security, Mr. Todd Wiggins had Internal Affairs, and asked me if I wanted out of the Hole and I stated yes, and they told me that I would have to sign a Paper stating that I would not harm the Officer or the Captain,” he further reported.
McMiller said that the Warden of Security threatened him and referred to him several times with a racially-motivated slur.
McMiller reports that he has filed a Title VI grievance against the prison with the Tennessee Department of Correction, the Johnson County Circuit Court clerk, Melissa Holloway, and a second clerk, Tammie Fenner. “Also I wrote to the Attorney General for that County trying to File a Complaint and no one wants to do anything about this Assault, So Now I’m typing this letter to you concerning this Problem, To see what you can do in having the People to do their job in letting me Press Charges against this C/O Officer at the Northeast Correctional Complex in Mounting City, Tennessee,” he wrote.
Tennessee’s attorney general is Herbert H. Slatery III, and Derrick Schofield is Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC).
McMiller is not the first black inmate to complain of discrimination based on race. Jerome Johnson, also at NWCX, filed a Title VI discrimination complaint with federal authorities last year as well as with the state of Tennessee but has received no resolution. In what Johnson believes was a clear exercise of retaliation on the part of prison staff, he was moved from Site 2, which is medium security, to Site 1, where the most dangerous inmates, including gang members, are housed.
Johnson told The Post & Email that he was provided no reason for the transfer and that when he asked, staff could provide no documentation or justification for his reclassification, which is required for a prisoner to be relocated between security levels, according to the administrative handbook provided to The Post & Email last year.
McMiller believes that he was moved across the state out of “retaliation.” On page 5, he wrote, “Because I told them I was going to Press charges for her Assaulting me and the Warden, Mr. Randy Lee and the Warden Of Security, Mr. Todd Wiggin had Retaliated by having me Transferred to the Worst Prison system in Tennessee and that is, Northwest Correctional Complex in Tiptonville, Tennessee…”
Mr. McMiller’s letter follows.
A larger version of the letter appears below.
