Three employees at the Big Sandy Penitentiary in Martin County, Kentucky, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges alleging they violated the civil rights of inmates.

Samuel J. Patrick, 41, of West Van Lear, Ky., and Clinton L. Pauley, 40, of Ironton, Ohio, are accused of assaulting inmates at the Inez penitentiary in 2021, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Kevin C. Pearce Jr., 37, of Inez, Ky., is accused of filing false reports hiding the alleged assaults.

The three men have been charged with violating an individual’s rights under the color of law and of falsifying records to impede an investigation.

The indictment alleges that on April 29, 2021, Patrick, a case management coordinator, and Pauley, the captain’s secretary, assaulted an inmate in the lieutenant’s office of USP Big Sandy.

After Pearce, the lieutenant, and a subordinate Bureau of Prisons employee witnessed the assault, Pearce allegedly asked that employee to write a false report omitting the assault, court records said. It is also alleged that Patrick pressured that employee to submit to Pearce’s demand.

The indictment also alleges that Pearce wrote a memorandum that documented the false account of the officers’ interactions with the inmate who was assaulted and stated that another employee was present in the office with the victim.

The memorandum also claimed the victim left the office without incident, omitting the assault, court records said. Patrick and Pauley are also alleged to have written memos to cover up the assault.

Pauley is also accused of previously assaulting another inmate on March 26, 2021, while the inmate was being escorted away from the lieutenants’ office of USP Big Sandy and subsequently writing a false report to cover it up.

A date for Patrick, Pauley, and Pearce to appear in court has not yet been scheduled, the news release said.

For the deprivation of rights charges, they each face a maximum of 10 years per count, and for the falsification of records charges, they each face 20 years for each count.