Md. correctional officer charged with destroying recording of inmate assault

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An Eastern Correctional Institution officer is being charged in federal court with allegedly destroying a video recording that showed another correctional officer assaulting an inmate.

David Quillen, a correctional officer at the Eastern Correctional Institution in Westover, was charged Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland with conspiracy to obstruct justice and the destruction of records for allegedly destroying a video recording of a fellow correctional officer’s assault of an inmate.

The charging document states Quillen knowingly destroyed a video containing evidence of Eastern Correctional Institution officer Samuel Warren’s assault of an inmate “with the intent to impede, obstruct, and influence the investigation.”

A spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services declined to comment.

In July 2021, Warren assaulted an inmate at Eastern Correctional Institution, according to the charging document. Later that same day, Quillen, Warren and other Eastern Correctional Institution correctional officers agreed to delete a video recording of the assault and lie about the deletion if asked. Quillen then deleted the video recording.

According to court documents, Warren used excessive force without justification on the inmate, punching the inmate multiple times, which Warren omitted in a false report.

Beginning in August 2022, Quillen and other Eastern Correctional Institution correctional officers made false statements to an FBI special agent and other federal law enforcement personnel, in addition to committing perjury before a federal grand jury concerning the assault and disappearance of the video.

In September of last year, Warren pled guilty to charges stemming from the assault. He faces a maximum of up to 30 years in prison when his sentencing before the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland begins in April.

Last year, union leaders representing Maryland’s correctional officers urged the state to hire more than 3,400 officers to address shortages at the state’s correctional institutions.

A spokesperson for the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.