Beaten and unconscious, a Byram man
says he lay helpless in a jail cell. And he says it all happened right
here in Jackson. Maryland Singleton says he went to the detention
center in downtown Jackson without a scratch, but came out brutally
beaten. Afraid to leave home, and suffering from broken bones,
Singleton says now he wants justice. "I really thought they were trying
to kill me. I was screaming for them to please stop," said Singleton.
Scars cover Singleton's head, scars he says he suffered in jail, at the
hands of jailors. "I was handcuffed,...I couldn't protect myself at
all," said Singleton. Singleton was arrested early Friday morning,
charged with driving under the influence. But he says a worse crime
began when he got to jail. "I had a cell phone no one took from me in
my front pocket of my coveralls an when I started to use it they
shouted at me not to use the cell phone and one officer opened up the
cage," said Singleton. Singleton says the officer threw a punch,
cracking his cheekbone. Defenseless in handcuffs, Singleton says the
first blow was caught on surveillance tape in the jail. He says
Saturday he and police investigators watched it together. "She said
there was no reason for that man to hit you the way he did. There's no
reason for you to be beat up the way you are." When WLBT asked to see
the tape, police said no. Singleton does not have a copy of the video.
But Singleton says most of the beating was off-camera, when jailors
dragged him, still in hand cuffs, to a dark cell. "I remember several
blows, I mean my head was just going back and forth like a rag doll and
I was eventually knocked unconsious," said Singleton. Waking up in a
pool of blood, still staining his undershirt in this home-video the
next day, Singleton says he cried out but no one responded."There was a
styrofoam cup in the room and I stuffed it in the toilet and I just
started flushing it and I flooded the whole jail cell and that made
them come back there and they finally saw me." Singleton was taken to
UMC, where he was diagnosed with a broken cheek, black eye, bruised
ear, and a cut forehead needing ten stitches. Records show he got to
the hospital at 3:30 in the morning. [more]
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