The indictment charges that Stevenson, 45, while acting as a sergeant with the Highland Park Police Department, willfully used excessive force when she struck and assaulted an individual identified in the indictment only as “V.B.” The indictment also alleges that the defendant caused bodily injury to V.B. and that she later made false statements to an FBI agent investigating the incident.

Stevenson faces up to 15 years of prison and a fine of up to $500,000. An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it is the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Detroit Field Office and is being prosecuted by Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Karima Maloney and Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela Thompson for the Eastern District of Michigan.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James C. Sumner of the Southern District of Mississippi sentenced Haynes to a term of three years probation and six months home confinement with electronic monitoring (employment and employment training permitted). Haynes was ordered to pay a $1,500 fine and $100 restitution for this offense. The judge also ordered Haynes to pay $100 in restitution to the victim. As part of his plea agreement, Haynes, who was fired from the Jackson Police Department, has agreed not to work as a law enforcement officer for any federal, state or local law enforcement agency for three years.

Haynes previously pleaded guilty and admitted during his April 2, 2009, plea hearing that he abused his authority as a law enforcement officer on June 21, 2008, when, while off-duty, but in uniform, he stopped and searched two men without cause or legal justification and stole $100 from one of the men. Haynes agreed that his conduct violated federal law and the constitutional rights of the two men.

The case was investigated by the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Erin Aslan of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda Haynes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi. The defendant is not related to and has no known relationship to AUSA Haynes.

The indictment charges Thompson, 61, with the deprivation of Otto Zehm’s civil rights on March 18, 2006, by repeatedly striking him with a baton and tasering him, resulting in bodily injury. The indictment also charges Thompson with making a false entry in a record in a matter investigated by a federal agency.

The civil rights charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, up to three years of court supervision after release and restitution. The falsification of records in a matter investigated by a federal agency carries a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and up to three years of court supervision after release.

An indictment is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Victor Boutros and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Durkin.