A former deputy sheriff and jail corporal from the Camden County Sheriff's Office has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for assaulting a pretrial detainee. Ryan Robert Biegel, aged 27 and a resident of Kingsland, Georgia, was also given three years of supervised release following his prison term.
Biegel pleaded guilty to using unreasonable force against the detainee, identified by the initials J.H., on January 28 before Judge Lisa G. Wood. The incident occurred on September 3, 2022, when Biegel and two other correctional officers entered J.H.'s holding cell. The officers restrained J.H.'s arms and pushed him against a wall. Biegel admitted to punching J.H. five times in the back of the head without justification and further striking him in the head and body an additional twenty-two times with his fists and knees.
The FBI Brunswick RA Field Office conducted the investigation alongside the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer J. Kirkland for the Southern District of Georgia and Trial Attorney Alec Ward from the Civil Rights Division's Criminal Section prosecuted this case.