A Florida corrections officer is facing trial for allegedly attacking a Black inmate who was about to marry a White woman.
North West Florida Daily News reports forty-four-year-old Darren Glover was allegedly brutally beaten by 49-year-old Michael Baxter. The CO is being charged with falsifying reports and denying Glover’s right not to endure cruel or unusual punishment.
In a federal court hearing on Wednesday, Baxter’s former secretary Shannon Watts recalled the horror she witnessed at the hands of her former superior in the 2015 incident. According to Watts, Glover and Baxter were in a verbal altercation about Glover’s untied shoes in the previous day’s wedding photo. Watts ran for aid when the confrontation began escalating and became physical.
When she returned, she saw Baxter repeatedly kicking Glover in the head as he attempted to protect himself.
“I kept asking myself if I’m seeing what I’m seeing,” Watts said of the 2015 incident.
Baxter then instructed Watts to close the door.
“I could hear inmate Glover whining and crying through the door,” she said. “He was whining like he was hurt.”
She said he later told her: “That n**gger did not need to be marrying a white woman. He needed to be in confinement all along.”
She assisted him in falsifying his report of the incident. She says she’s still haunted by what she witnessed.
“The crying, the whining — they haven’t been removed,” Watts said. “They are still there. This was eating at me, and I had to get some relief.”
The verdict in the case is expected to be declared in the coming days.
