A Louisiana sheriff under investigation for beating prisoners in his custody has now been accused of threatening to shoot a Department of Justice lawyer.
The Advocate reports that newly released court dockets show that the DOJ is claiming Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal called DOJ lawyer Mark Blumberg a "sorry son-of-a-bitch Jew bastard" whom he also threatened to shoot.
The comments about Blumberg, which were secretly recorded, came just after Blumberg met with Ackal prior to Ackal's indictment on criminal civil rights violations. In the recordings, Ackal recalled how Blumberg tried to make a deal where he would give up names of people who helped in the abuse of prisoners in exchange for a lighter sentence.
"The only thing I’m gonna give you — fucking shoot you right between your goddamned Jewish-eyes-look-like-opossum bastard," Ackal recalls telling him.
Along with one of his top supervisors and a captain, Ackal is facing criminal charges based on allegations that he directed prisoners in his custody to be beaten inside the jail's chapel, which is one of the few places in the jail that doesn't have security cameras.
The DOJ's indictment of Ackal is part of a much broader investigation into prisoner abuse that has already scored nine guilty pleas from deputies.
