CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A former Clayton County jailer pleaded guilty to using excessive force against a detainee.
Jabin Bethea admitted to using a Taser on an inmate at least six times without any justification in May 2024. He took a plea deal in federal court on Wednesday.
“Corrections officers work long hours in challenging circumstances to maintain order in our district’s jails and prisons, but wanton abuse cannot be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said.
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Clayton County Sheriff Levon Allen spoke exclusively to Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne earlier this year after Bethea was indicted.
Allen said Bethea was supposed to take an inmate to a disciplinary unit. Things started going south when Bethea appeared to run the inmate into a door and then, for some reason, took his handcuffs off.
“It never should have happened, and that’s just something that ultimately he would have to answer to in his day of court,” Allen said in April.
The incident was seen on Bethea’s bodycam. Another deputy tried to intervene and calm things down, but Bethea brushed him aside.
Prosecutors said Bethea slammed the inmate’s head into a wall, threw him on the ground and told him to put his hands behind his back.
“Video evidence from surveillance and body worn cameras confirms that, even though the detainee remained on the floor and obeyed Bethea’s orders, Bethea tased the detainee at least six times,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
Allen told Winne that the inmate baited Bethea with profanities and repeating a racial slur, but he said professionals should be train to expect that kind of behavior and rise above it.
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Channel 2 Action News pulled an online Peace Officer Standards and Training Council record for Bethea. It showed that he was fired by DeKalb County police months before he started with the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office.
Allen says his office had investigated what led to Bethea’s termination from the DeKalb County Police Department when CCSO hired him.
The sheriff acknowledged manpower shortages and a limited pool of applicants sometimes lead to taking a chance on an officer he normally would not.
“Where we are with the pay scale compared to other departments, you know, sometimes ... the applicant pool of what you have is based on what you have to offer,” Allen said.
Bethea will be sentenced on March 10, 2026.
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