North Idaho deputy facing charge after accusations of beating, throwing a jail inmate ‘like a rag doll’

A former Boundary County Sheriff’s Office deputy is facing a criminal charge after being accused of beating and throwing a jail inmate around “like a rag doll” two years ago.

Former Sgt. Bryant Brown, 37, shoved the inmate into his cell, struck the back of his head into a window, punched him in the throat, slammed his head into a brick wall and then grabbed his limp body and threw him against a wall at the other side of the cell, according to court documents.

The beating was so severe the man started bleeding and sobbing and was transported to the hospital.

Brown was charged with felony aggravated battery in September and did not appear at his initial proceeding, but has since posted bond.

“We won’t cut breaks on potential criminal behavior just because someone works for the sheriff’s office,” Boundary County Sheriff Travis Stolley wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday about the incident.

Stolley, who took office in January of this year, claimed in his post that the leadership under former Sheriff Dave Kramer never started a formal criminal investigation, and nobody had documented the incident. Current sheriff’s office investigators only have a copy of the video depicting the beating because it was passed around during an Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training investigation into whether he should lose certification to be a law enforcement officer.

While it took more than two years for someone to pursue charges, Boundary County Prosecuting Attorney Andrakay Pluid told The Spokesman-Review that no investigation was forwarded to her office until August of this year.

“Neither matter was ever formally referred to the prosecutor’s office for criminal charges,” Stolley wrote. “While the prior administration did take steps to address the issue internally, including the POST decertification process, the gravity of the situation cannot be overlooked.”

Stolley did not respond to a request for an interview.

Brown has not been decertified as an officer by the Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training, a state agency that provides training and certification for the state’s law enforcement officers, according to its decertification database. But there is a decertification investigation ongoing, Pluid said in an email Tuesday. She declined to comment further about Brown or the investigation.

According to court records, Brown escorted the man into his holding cell after he was arrested on a misdemeanor warrant. The man was intoxicated and was insulting the staff, according to court documents.

The man also was antagonizing Brown by calling him names and using vulgar expletives. Immediately after the inmate calls Brown a “fat turd,” the deputy “lunges” into the holding cell and the two begin to scuffle, according to video footage taken by a camera in the holding cell that captured the entirety of the alleged beating, which is documented within Brown’s court record.

It says Brown shoved the man “violently” into the back window of the jail’s holding cell where his head struck against the glass. The man slumped into a chair without resistance, but Brown leaped into the cell and began to punch the man in the face. It caused the man’s head to “smash off the brick wall,” according to court documents.

The man’s head recoiled. As Brown punched him in the throat, the man attempted to put up his hands to stop the blows but was still not resisting, the documents say. Using both of his hands, Brown grabbed the man’s throat and slammed him against the brick wall. At this point, another deputy came into the cell and tried to grab the man, but Brown pulled him away and flung his body across the cell, hitting the wall and the floor.

“(His) body is being thrown around like a rag doll by Brown at this point,” the investigating detective writes in an affidavit.

The man eventually cried out, “I’m not resisting,” but Brown punched him again, according to court records. As the man was limp and sobbing on the floor, Brown struck him in the head four to five times with his knee and punched him in the face, asking the inmate, “Are you done?” and cursed at him.

“(He) is not resisting at all and you can clearly hear him sobbing as his limp body is laying on the concrete floor,” the detective wrote. Brown saw a detective open the cell door and immediately turned to the man and told him to stop moving. Another deputy called for medical aid and advised Brown to “remove himself from the situation,” but he refused, court documents say. A large puddle of blood remained on the floor.

As the man waited for medical staff, he told the deputies, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” He was transported to the hospital and to the Kootenai County Jail. The man’s eyes were swollen shut, there was a bloody gash on his eye, and his face appeared swollen and bruised, a detective documented in his report.

Brown has a preliminary hearing set for Nov. 3.