Former police officer convicted of forcing inmate to lick urine from cell floor

CNN
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A former Mississippi police officer has been sentenced to one year in prison, followed by one year of probation, and ordered to pay fines and taxes for forcing a man he arrested to lick urine from the floor of his cell.

Michael Christian Green was sentenced to the maximum penalty for a federal offense of depriving a person of their civil rights under the guise of the law. The former Pearl Police Department officer pleaded guilty in March and is scheduled to report to the Federal Bureau of Prisons on July 26.

Green worked for the Pearl Police Department for six months after previously working for other law enforcement agencies in Jackson, Mississippi. Pearl is in the same county where six former white police officers, some of whom referred to themselves as the “Goon Squad,” were convicted at the federal and state levels after pleading guilty to racist attacks on two innocent black men.

Green responded to a disturbance at a Sam’s Club on Dec. 23, 2023, and arrested a man, according to the complaint. After the man was arrested, surveillance footage from the holding cell showed him trying to tell Green he needed to urinate, federal prosecutors wrote in the complaint. After receiving no response, the man urinated in a corner. When Green later learned about the urine, he told the arrestee to lick up the urine and threatened to hit him with a phone, the complaint states.

While standing in the doorway of the cell, Green ordered the man to lie on the ground and “get himself together,” according to the indictment. He then “pulled his phone out of his duty vest and filmed” the man as he complied. Green resigned on December 27.

Green testified during the sentencing in federal court, took responsibility for his actions and said he regretted his actions.

CNN has asked Green’s lawyer for comment.

“While the Town of Pearl is not the judge in this case, it is glad to put this part of our recent past behind us,” the township said in a statement. “Michael Green’s actions were reprehensible and inexcusable, and we are deeply saddened to have been associated with this incident. We hope this verdict can help the victim and his family in their healing process, and we are grateful to our federal partners who helped bring this horrific incident to justice quickly.”