Virginia’s corrections chief: Press, advocates worked to convict guards in patient’s death at Marion facility

Virginia Department of Corrections Director and former Circuit Court Judge Chad Dotson said reporters, advocates and the court of public opinion worked against five of his correctional officers employed in Marion who were found not liable by a jury for fatally injuring a mentally-incapicated adult in February of 2022.

The family of Charles Givens had accused the officers of repeatedly beating the man who died from internal bleeding of a ruptured spleen that was pierced by a broken rib—an injury that an assistant medical examiner called the result of a homicide. “Thursday’s verdict confirms what (his agency) has long known: Our best-in-class agency is committed to its mission of ensuring public safety by providing effective incarceration, supervision and evidence-based reentry services,” Dotson said in a prepared statement.

National Public Radio had accused the Marion facility guards of inhumane treatment of Givens and other inmates who had been treated for 13 cases of pneumonia over 3 years.

Givens, whose sister said he had the mental capacity of a child due to a brain injury, was convicted of the 2010 first-degree murder of Misty Garrett. She was Givens’ mother’s home health nurse who had refused the man’s invites for a date and become his girlfriend. Police said Givens shot Garrett from behind with a rifle out of anger. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced by a Lee County judge to life in prison.

(IMAGES: C. Dotson & Virginia Department of Corrections / Official Facebook)