A Macon state prison guard pleaded guilty Wednesday to violating an inmate's civil rights for his part in a 2010 beating.
Emmett McKenzie, 31, of Montezuma, is a former sergeant at the prison in Oglethorpe. He pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.
A news release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Macon says McKenzie told the inmate, "Don't mess with my officers," watched another officer punch the handcuffed man and throw him to the ground and then walked away as the beating continued.
The U.S. Attorney's office says McKenzie told his Macon State Prison supervisors about the beating, but they took no action to stop the assault.
He faces up to five years in prison. McKenzie is the third officer to plead guilty in the case, according to a news release.
The beating happened in December 2010 during a wave of lockdowns at four Georgia prisons as inmates went on strike for better work and living conditions.
The inmate, 29-year-old Terrance Bryant Dean, was allegedly beaten by seven members of the prison's Correctional Emergency Response Team after attacking a guard himself. He was serving a sentence for armed robbery.
In 2011, Dean's sister told 13WMAZ that he was disabled and in a wheelchair two months after the beating.