Court documents show graphic details of detainee's abuse by former Pearl police officer

Editor's Note: This story describes in graphic detail the abuse of a person at the hands of a former Pearl police officer. Discretion is advised.

A former Pearl police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to forcing a detainee to lick his own urine from the floor of a holding cell, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a press release.

The plea announcement came the same day City of Pearl officials announced the incident occurred and that the officer had been terminated.

Michael Christian Green, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of acting under color of law to deprive a person of his civil rights. Green faces a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison, the release states.

The news release states a federal magistrate judge will determine the sentence.

According to court documents, Green responded to a disturbance at a Sam’s Club on Dec. 23, 2023, and arrested a man.

Once the man was booked, security footage from the holding cell showed him attempting to tell Green he needed to urinate. The court records state that after not receiving a response, the man urinated in a corner.

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Court documents say that when Green was later told about the urine, Green threatened to beat the arrestee with a phone. The report states that Green also commanded the arrestee to lick the urine up.

According to the court records, while standing in the doorway of the holding cell, Green commanded the man to get on the ground and “suck it up.” Green then “removed his phone from his duty vest and filmed” the man, who complied.

Court documents say when the man began the action, he “gagged” three times in the process. When the arrestee would gag, Green responded with statements such as “don’t spit it out” and “lick that [expletive] up. Drink your [expletive] piss.”

After returning to the booking area, the man “repeatedly vomited” in a garbage can, the report says.

In a Thursday news conference, Pearl Mayor Jake Windham said Green worked with the Pearl Police Department for approximately six months and had “some personnel issues, but nothing like this.”

“This type of behavior in my opinion … is just despicable,” Windham said.

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Green was relieved of his duties on Dec. 27, 2023.

“I don’t understand how you treat someone like that,” Windham said at the news conference. “The proper thing to do was to take the gentleman to the restroom and to not do anything of this magnitude and violate his civil rights.”

During the Thursday press conference, Windham extended his apologies to the victim and the victim’s family for the “negligent and horrible type of treatment from an officer of the law.”

He said the department handled the matter with “tremendous care.”

“We hold our officers to a higher standard than this, and it’s upsetting to having to be exposed to incidents like that,” Windham said.

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The city has engaged Attorney Candace Gregory, a former federal prosecutor and director of Mississippi’s Public Integrity Division, to supplement the city’s internal investigation, Windham said. Gregory is said to be in the process of reviewing the police department's policies and procedures along with providing training assistance.

The Dec. 23 incident happened months after six former Mississippi law enforcement officers in Rankin County — some of whom called themselves the "Goon Squad" — pleaded guilty to all state charges for the torture and abuse of two Black men, one of whom was shot in the mouth.

Windham said that the Pearl Police Department handled their investigation promptly.

“We handle things swiftly around here. I think there’s a stark contrast between the Pearl Police Department in this incident and the Goon Squad,” Windham said.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Pearl MS police officer abuses detainee, violates civil rights