Four Missouri corrections officers terminated following death of prisoner in December
The Missouri Department of Corrections has terminated four corrections officers as a result of its investigation of the December death of a 38-year-old prisoner.
Othel Moore died Dec. 8. He was incarcerated at Jefferson City Correctional Center.
An autopsy was conducted by the Cole County Medical Examiner, but a report has not been completed, and a cause of death has not been determined, Karen Pojmann, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said Wednesday.
The Cole County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Moore’s death in addition to the corrections department’s internal investigation, Pojmann said. Further information about what led to the terminations was not immediately available.
On Thursday, attorneys for Moore’s family commended the department for ending the four corrections officers’ employment, but said the department has not provided answers about what happened. The names of the officers have also not been disclosed.
“The Moore family is demanding at this stage, produce the video evidence, produce the investigative reports,” said civil rights attorney Andrew Stroth.
He added that he believes there is “a clear pattern and practice of abuse within the Missouri Department of Corrections.”
Moore had been incarcerated for more than 18 years and was serving a 30-year sentence for second-degree domestic assault, first-degree robbery, armed criminal action and possession of a controlled substance.
In the weeks after his death, attorneys for his family called for information from corrections officials, including surveillance videos showing what transpired.
Stroth said at the time that they had not yet received evidence showing what happened from the Department of Corrections, but that there were accounts that Moore had been pepper-sprayed by corrections officers and “people heard him say he couldn’t breathe.”
Moore grew up in St. Louis and had a daughter, his family said.
Last year, 134 prisoners died in the Missouri Department of Corrections.
This story was originally published March 6, 2024 at 4:02 PM.
