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Milwaukee, WI — In 2018, Kuan Barnett, then 19, was arrested and sentenced to 7 years behind bars after being found guilty of armed robbery. Barnett should’ve served out his sentence and faced his accountability for his crimes and that, as they say, should have been that. Instead of simply serving out his sentence, however, Barnett will now likely receive a very large chunk of money, courtesy of the taxpayers of Wisconsin, because two officers couldn’t restrain themselves from viciously beating him.

Barnett’s attorneys, Ben Elson and People’s Law Firm of Chicago, and Robin Shellow of Milwaukee, announced a lawsuit this week against two former officers who were convicted of brutally attacking him in his cell, along with four other officers who refused to step in and stop the attack.

Barnett was beaten and tortured, according to the lawsuit, because he had allegedly made the poor decision to spit water out of his isolation cell at two guards. The beating was apparently retaliation for the spitting, which officers referred to as an “assault.”

According to his lawsuit, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

On Oct. 25, 2018, he spit water at guard Russell Goldsmith through an opening in the cell. The next day, Barnett spit water at guard Tara Woodruff through the opening. Later that second day, Goldsmith and guard Michael Thompson returned to Barnett’s cell, and after Woodruff opened it, entered it and beat Barnett, gouged his eyes, and bent back his fingers as he tried to protect himself by going into a fetal position. Then Goldsmith dragged him to another area of the cellblock while keeping him in a chokehold, and put him in a restraint chair. The attack was in retaliation for the spitting, according to the suit. Goldsmith and Thompson submitted reports saying they saw Barnett trying to hang himself with a sheet, and that when they went into his cell it became clear he had been only trying to lure them in and that he took a fighting stance and the guards responded in self-defense. They later admitted that was lie. Goldsmith resigned and Thompson was fired after the completion of an internal investigation, and both were later charged with crimes.

After the assault, which was captured on video but never released until now, Goldsmith pleaded no contest to abuse of a penal facility resident and misconduct in public office, both felonies. Instead of going to jail for his crimes, he was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

Goldsmith is seen on the gruesome video grinding his teeth in an apparent fit of rage as he chokes out Barnett. The 64-year-old officer appeared to be taking pleasure in the torture of the teen.

Thompson was subsequently charged with felony misconduct and was facing years in prison as well. However, like Goldsmith, he took a plea deal and pleaded no contest to reduced misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and resisting or obstructing an officer and was sentenced to a year of probation.

As the Sentinel reported, Barnett’s lawsuit is seeking compensatory and punitive damages for conspiracy, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and use of excessive force in violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Indeed, gouging a 19-year-old man’s eyes out in retaliation for spitting water, is without a doubt, cruel and unusual.

Named in the lawsuit as defendants are Goldsmith, Thompson, Woodruff and three other guards: Christopher Olson, a lieutenant, and two sergeants, Austin Schlachter and Brian Reynolds, all in their individual capacities.

Below is a video that looks like a scene out of a third world country. This is not supposed to happen in the land of the free. However, as TFTP reports on a regular basis, this is the unfortunate expectation from sea to shining sea.

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