Federal Bureau of Prisons Lieutenant Pleads Guilty to Violating the Civil Rights of an Inmate Resulting in His Death

On July 12, 2023, a BOP Lieutenant assigned to the Federal Correctional Complex Petersburg in Hopewell, Virginia, pleaded guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law.  Michael Anderson pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia.  According to the factual statement in support of the guilty plea, on January 9, 2021, while working as a BOP Lieutenant, Anderson violated an inmate’s Eighth Amendment right to be free from prison officials’ deliberate indifference to the serious medical needs of an inmate when, after being informed of and personally observing an inmate experiencing symptoms of a medical emergency, Anderson chose not to take any meaningful action to address the inmate’s obvious need for medical assessment and care.  In addition, according to the factual statement, on January 10, 2021, after being informed that the inmate had fallen to the ground while alone in a suicide observation cell, Anderson failed to obtain assistance for the inmate and chose not to respond to the suicide observation cell, resulting in the inmate laying on the ground for over an hour and a half before anyone entered the cell, and ultimately, the inmate was pronounced dead.  The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Washington Field Office.