Willie Fred Knowles pleads guilty and faces five years in prison for pushing and hitting woman, and lying to FBI about use of force in incident

A former Louisiana police officer pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of a woman and lying to the FBI on Friday, in a rare case of a police officer facing conviction.

According to the indictment, in 2012, Homer police department officer Willie Fred Knowles pushed a woman, known as KM, to the floor and struck her face and body, causing injury. A few months later, when questioned by the FBI, Knowles lied about the incident, telling agents the woman jumped on his back and that he never struck her.

He was also charged with deploying his Taser against two people in 2012, “without justification”.

On Friday, in a court in Shreveport, Louisiana, Knowles pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and violating the civil rights of KM. He will be sentenced on 9 November and he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for lying to the FBI and one year for the civil rights charge.

Knowles was suspended and then terminated by the time charges were brought.

Knowles’ case represents a rare example of a police officer facing a conviction in a civil rights case. A study by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review found that, between 1995 and 2005, federal prosecutors denied bringing charges in 96% of cases where law enforcement officers faced civil rights charges. In contrast, prosecutors turned down only 23% of all other type of criminal cases.

Elton Richey, a defense attorney in Shreveport who has defended both police officers who were terminated and civilians who claim the police violated their civil rights, said relying on police to monitor themselves is problematic.

“I can’t think of any case that I’ve and where the internal affairs investigation found the officer at fault,” he said, referencing the internal body which investigates civil rights cases. “The officer will get what civilians don’t get, and that’s the benefit of the doubt.”

The Homer police department has come under increased scrutiny, after a series of lawsuits prompted the FBI to launch an investigation into the department. Complaints escalated after an elderly black unarmed man was shot and killed by two white police officers. The two settled with the family for $125,000.