A former Orange County jailer will spend 30 days in the jail after being found guilty of misdemeanor assault on a prisoner.
A jury in 163rd State District Court Friday morning decided 40-year-old Brian David Lee should serve 30 days in jail, but did not assess him a fine. Lee had asked for probation. The jury deliberated two-and-a-half hours on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning to reach the punishment decision.
He had been indicted on the first degree felony of aggravate assault, which carried a punishment of five to 99 years in state prison.
The jury spent nearly seven hours in deliberations on Wednesday and Thursday to find him guilty of the lesser charge.
Prosecutor Krispen Walker showed jail surveillance video recordings of Lee beginning a pat-down search of an incoming intoxicated prisoner. The prisoner was standing facing a cinder-block wall with his hands handcuffed behind his back. Suddenly Lee slammed the man to the floor. The back of the man’s head hit the floor.
Testimony showed the man bled profusely from the mouth, where he had a laceration and broken teeth. He also had broken ribs.
Lee told the jury his finger was caught in the chain of the handcuffs and he thought the intoxicated man was moving to break his finger. Lee has a disfigured finger after a breaking it while grabbing an inmate when he worked at the Al Price Juvenile Detention Facility in Beaumont a few years ago.
State District Judge Dennis Powell presided over the trial. Lee’s defense attorneys were Ryan Gertz and Larry Hunter.
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