A former Philadelphia correctional officer has been charged with aggravated assault after prosecutors say he beat a restrained incarcerated man last year inside one of the city’s jails.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office announced the case against Ernest Blair, 34, on Friday, a day after a judge held the charges against him for trial.
According to court records, the confrontation began inside the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center after Blair confiscated an item from Djean Williams, who had pleaded guilty days earlier to aggravated assault for shooting a 15-year-old boy on a playground outside a North Philadelphia recreation center in 2023.
After the confrontation, Blair told investigators that Williams became agitated and punched him in the face, according to an affidavit of probable cause for Williams’ arrest.
Williams, 23, later pleaded guilty to simple assault and was sentenced in August to two years in prison.
Prosecutors now say that after Williams was restrained and handcuffed, Blair repeatedly punched and kicked him and doused him with pepper spray while out of view of jail surveillance cameras.
Nearly a year after the incident, authorities arrested Blair and charged him with aggravated assault, official oppression, and related crimes. On Thursday, following a preliminary hearing, Common Pleas Court Judge Joffie C. Pittman III ruled that prosecutors had presented sufficient evidence for the case to proceed to trial.
The alleged assault occurred after another correctional officer escorted Williams into the back room of a medical unit, an area shielded from video surveillance, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Blair’s arrest.
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Williams suffered injuries to his face and body, including a hematoma and cuts that required stitches, the document said.
Blair’s attorney, Guy Sciolla II, did not return a phone call seeking comment Friday. Marisa Palmer, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office, also did not immediately respond to requests for additional information.
The district attorney’s office said it opened its investigation after the prison department’s office of professional compliance completed an internal review in December and referred the matter to prosecutors.
John Mitchell, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Prisons, said Blair — who joined the department in 2014 — had been fired in February.
The department “has zero tolerance for any conduct by staff that violates the civil rights or dignity of individuals in our custody, which is why this incident was referred to the district attorney’s office,” Mitchell said. He declined to comment on the criminal case, citing department policy.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said Blair “will be held accountable for violating his oath of office and unlawfully mistreating an incarcerated person while acting in his official capacity.”
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