A former Philly jail guard was charged with ignoring a prisoner’s injuries, then pepper-spraying him
Ivory Cousins locked an injured prisoner inside his cell, left the man there for an hour, then pepper-sprayed him and allowed his cell to get robbed, federal prosecutors said.
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A former Philadelphia jail guard has been charged with violating a prisoner’s rights for locking him inside his cell while he was injured, leaving him there for an hour, pepper-spraying him as he was about to be escorted to the facility’s medical unit, then allowing another prisoner to steal his cell, prosecutors said Friday.
Ivory Cousins, 35, of West Deptford, also faces charges of filing a false report in an attempt to cover up her conduct, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Cousins was working as a guard at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia on Aug. 22, 2019, prosecutors say, when.she unlocked the door to a prisoner’s cell, and several other prisoners went inside and assaulted him, leaving him with a broken nose and a bloodied, swollen face.
Cousins saw the attackers run away but took no action to help the inmate, according to the federal indictment filed against her. Instead, the indictment says, she approached his cell door and locked him inside for more than an hour, a decision that prosecutors described as being “deliberately indifferent” to his injuries.
Around 9 p.m., the indictment says, Cousins’ partner discovered that the man was injured and took steps to get him to the jail’s medical facility. But after her partner temporarily walked away, the indictment says, Cousins pepper-sprayed the prisoner before he was taken in for treatment.
After that, the indictment says, Cousins unlocked the man’s cell door again and stood by as one of the man’s assailants stole some of his belongings.
(The indictment does not name any of the prisoners or Cousins’ coworkers).
Afterward, the indictment says, Cousins provided “false or misleading” information in a written incident report, saying the prisoner she pepper-sprayed had attempted to stab another man with a homemade weapon.
Cousins faces a maximum sentence of more than 40 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.
Attempts to reach her for comment Friday were not successful. She did not have an attorney listed in court documents.