A federal jury in Boston found a senior correctional officer at a federal prison medical center in Massachusetts guilty of beating a “mentally impaired” inmate in 2019.
Seth Bourget, 42, of Woodstock, Conn., was convicted Tuesday of one count of deprivation of civil rights under color of law following a five-day trial, a charge which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper scheduled sentencing for April 5, 2023.
“When members of law enforcement demonstrate such poor judgment and gross misconduct, they undermine the exceptional work the vast majority of their colleagues do every day,” wrote U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins in a statement following the verdict. “Wearing a badge is an honor and comes with enormous responsibility. Mr. Bourget’s conduct fell so far below that standard he is now a convicted felon.”
According to the indictment filed on Feb. 5, 2020, the incidents occurred on June 18, 2019, in the U.S. Bureau Prisons Federal Medical Center in Devens, against an inmate identified by initials. The document describes abuses including when Bourget “dropped his knee” on the inmate’s head and “struck inmate … with a protective shield with excessive force while (inmate) was handcuffed inside a locked holding cell.”
Rollins in her statement wrote that the inmate’s injuries “required 12 staples to close a gash Mr. Bourget caused to the back of his skull.”
