Video shows Lincoln Hills guard dropping knee-first onto handcuffed juvenile inmate's neck

MADISON - A guard at Wisconsin’s juvenile prison complex stepped on the base of the neck of a teen inmate and then dropped knee-first onto his neck while the youth was on the floor in handcuffs, newly obtained video of the 2013 incident shows.

A nearby supervisor didn’t stop him. As the situation intensified, the supervisor abruptly took a step to the side, obscuring the view of the prison’s surveillance camera.

The top trainer at the time at the prison complex that houses Lincoln Hills School for Boys and Copper Lake School for Girls later showed the video in class at least once.

That raised concerns for internal investigators that staff were being trained how to use dangerous techniques that could gravely injure juveniles. Those investigators repeatedly saw inappropriate force being used, department records show. 

“This is a child who was helpless. He was defenseless with his hands cuffed behind his back. It’s just ridiculous,” said Mark Soler, executive director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy in Washington, D.C.

“No one would want their own child subjected to that kind of treatment — or I guess ‘mistreatment’ is a better word,” said Soler, who reviewed video of the incident at the request of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Only a handful of videos have emerged from the prison complex north of Wausau, which has been under criminal investigation for 2½ years. Prosecutors declined comment for this story and have not said when they will make charging decisions.

Separately, the state faces three lawsuits over its treatment of inmates at Lincoln Hills. In one of the cases, a federal judge ruled Friday that he would force Lincoln Hills to curb its use of solitary confinement, pepper spray and restraints on teen inmates.

The incident depicted in the video obtained by the Journal Sentinel occurred in November 2013 but wasn’t investigated until late 2015. Soon afterward, guard Timothy Johnson and supervisor Joseph Hoy quit.

At the time of his resignation, Johnson was being investigated for two other incidents at the prison, in which two juvenile inmates had their bones broken.

In a recent interview, Johnson said he used techniques taught to him by the Department of Corrections and had no idea at the time that his response was considered inappropriate under department policies.

“Everything I did was a trained technique,” he said. “We just went by what we were taught.”

Hoy declined comment.

Department of Corrections spokesman Tristan Cook said Lincoln Hills has overhauled its practices in the years since the incident occurred. For instance, the prison greatly expanded its training program and equipped all guards with body cameras.

“The techniques used in this incident do not reflect DOC expectations for (Lincoln Hills) security staff and the staff involved in this incident are no longer employed by the Department of Corrections,” Cook said by email.

He did not say why it took two years for prison officials to review the incident. He also did not say if the juvenile inmate's guardians had been notified of the incident, as required under prison policy.

The problems at the prison complex have been numerous. A 17-year-old boy had his toes partially amputated after a guard slammed a metal door on his foot in 2015; a guard pushed a 15-year-old girl against the wall by her neck that year, according to witnesses; and the prison's security director at the time was demoted last year after he failed to review sexual assault investigations, as his job required.

From November 2014 through the end of last year, eight Lincoln Hills employees were fired and 14 resigned or retired amid internal investigations.

Foot on neck

The Journal Sentinel obtained a one-minute video clip of the 2013 incident from a source and confirmed its authenticity with another who had seen it. As with much of surveillance video from the prison’s fixed cameras, the image quality is poor and it does not include audio.

On Nov. 2, 2013, two inmates were fighting in a day room, according to department records. Guards called for backup and ordered the inmates to stop fighting and lie down on their stomachs. The teens complied and the guards handcuffed them.

Johnson, who had worked at Lincoln Hills for nearly 20 years at the time, arrived after they were on the ground and secured by other officers. Johnson brandished a canister of pepper spray in the faces of each inmate but did not disperse it. Standing over one of the face-down inmates, he put his foot on the base of the inmate's neck, the video shows.

Five seconds later, he dropped knee-first onto the back of the teen's neck.

Hoy, the supervisor, stood a few feet from Johnson. His back was to Johnson, but he looked over his shoulder just after Johnson dropped onto the inmate and stepped to his left, blocking much of the camera's view of Johnson and the inmate.

Before escorting the inmate out of the room, Johnson and two other guards pulled the boy’s handcuffed arms up behind him while he was on the floor in “what appears to be a hyper-extended position placing the youth at significant risk of injury,” according to a memo by Supervising Officer Steven Staehler.

Staehler reviewed the video for internal investigators two years after the incident occurred.

His review was part of a broader internal investigation into how force was used from 2013 to 2015. Putting a knee into the back of an inmate, as Johnson did, “has been seen repeatedly used by numerous staff during numerous incidents” during that period, according to Department of Corrections records.

Johnson said he had acted in accordance with the training he received at Lincoln Hills for years. Hoy’s behavior at the scene shows such actions were considered appropriate, he said.

“If it was not a trained technique, he would have stopped me,” Johnson said. “He would have said, ‘Hey, Tim, knock it off,’ but he didn’t.”

Johnson was the only prison worker to file a report about what happened, even though department policy requires all staff who partake in or witness such an incident to write a report.

In his report, Johnson wrote he was "forced to kneel on (the inmate's) upper back" because the inmate threatened to harm staff and was resisting. Staehler's memo noted the inmate did not appear to be struggling when Johnson dropped onto him.

The internal investigation found Johnson’s use of force was excessive and unjustified. It criticized Hoy for not putting a stop to Johnson’s actions.

Soler, who reviewed the video for the Journal Sentinel, said Johnson’s actions were outrageous, created great risk of harm and raised questions about how officers at Lincoln Hills were trained.

Soler, whose group is focused on reducing the incarceration of children, said he was particularly troubled by Hoy blocking the camera’s view.

“There’s a certain level of intent there that’s pretty scary,” Soler said. “It isn’t clear why he did that, other than he didn’t want it filmed.

“It’s very disturbing because it carries the implication that other things could happen and staff could cover up for each other.”

Johnson quit — inadvertently — in January 2016 as he was being investigated for two other incidents. Anticipating that he could be fired, he had prepared a letter of resignation in case he decided he needed it. He accidentally emailed it to his boss, who wouldn’t let him rescind it.

Johnson said he learned after he left Lincoln Hills that the techniques he had used for years were inappropriate. He said he wished he had been given proper training.

Johnson, who now works in a factory, said he was so haunted by his time at Lincoln Hills that he could no longer work in a correctional institution.

“I had too many memories coming back to me, either through flashbacks or bad dreams," he said.

Internal investigators interviewed Hoy as a witness in March 2016. Hoy worked his last day the following month, though his retirement didn't take effect until July 2016, according to the Department of Corrections.

Video shown as training

Dusty Meunier, the trainer at Lincoln Hills School, showed the video in class sometime between the time of the incident in November 2013 and the start of the internal investigation into it in December 2015. 

Meunier told internal investigators the early part of the video showed staff doing a good job of talking the inmates into ending their fight and lying down on the ground. But on at least one occasion, Meunier left the video on long enough for viewers to see the portion where Johnson stepped on the inmate’s neck, according to department records.

Meunier did not specify that Johnson had used excessive force, according to an internal investigation. 

“I guess at the time I didn’t think it was that big of a deal,” Meunier told investigators regarding showing the video.

Meunier was fired in May 2016 for showing the video and numerous other incidents, including failing to stop staff from abusing teens, overlooking excessive force and leaving a juvenile inmate unattended for more than five minutes in a room that had been fogged with pepper spray.