Louisiana Voice

Gavin McCauley is in the Evangeline Parish Jail on drug charges.

His mom, Dana McCauley doesn’t deny he needs help and she plans to admit him into a rehab center – if she can keep him alive long enough.

The problem is he has a cyst in his brain stem and a deputy sheriff, a jailer actually, attacked Gavin, 27, last Friday and left him bleeding on the floor of his cell unattended.

The jailer was identified by Dana McCauley as Jaquerus Hayward (Sheriff Charles Guillory said he doesn’t know the jailer – “We have a lot of part-timers working in the jail,” he said).

A major problem with local jails is the staffing with guards who are part-time, inexperienced, and inadequately trained. Such situations often result in charges of excessive force on the part of guards.

The problem erupted Friday when Hayward entered McCauley’s cell and left the cell door open. McCauley asked Hayward if he could close the door, and Hayward said yes, Dany McCauley told LouisianaVoice. “Hayward yelled at him for closing the door and Gavin said he asked and McCauley said okay. That’s when Hayward grabbed Gavin, slammed him against the wall and onto the floor and began beating him.”

She said Gavin had a court hearing today (Monday) “and his face was still swollen.”

She said Gavin has a brain stem cyst and if it ruptured, it could be fatal. “They know about that but they don’t care,” she said.

She said she called the jail to complain and spoke directly to Hayward who said he was justified in taking the action he did.

LouisianaVoice spoke with Sheriff Guillory who said he was unaware of the incident. He added that he would investigate to determine why the guard attacked Gavin McCauley.

“They finally brought in a nurse but she didn’t do anything for him,” she said.

Six years ago, the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department slammed the Evangeline Parish Sheriff’s Office and the Ville Platte Police Department for the two departments’ policy of randomly detaining citizens for questioning even though they were not suspected of committing any crimes.

The 17-PAGE REPORT said the practice dated back “as far as anyone (at either department) can remember.”

LouisianaVoice REPORTED in May that victims of the practice waited too long to file their class action lawsuit against the two departments.

Guillory wasn’t elected until 2019, three years after the report was published, but Dana McCauley says little has changed.

“They’re still doing it,” she said of the practice of randomly hauling citizens in, strip-searching them, placing them in holding cells without beds, toilets or showers, and denying communication with family members – all in order to pressure them into giving information about possible crimes or even, in some cases, confessing to crimes they didn’t commit after officers threatened to arrest and imprison family members.