A former Mississippi police officer admitted in federal court Thursday that he forced an inmate to drink his own urine, pleading guilty to a violation of the man’s civil rights, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Court records show Michael C. Green, 26, was working as a patrolman for the Pearl (Miss.) Police Department in December 2023 when he responded to a report of a disturbance at a local Sam’s Club.
At the scene, Green and other officers encountered a male subject, identified in court records only as “B.E.”, who was taken into custody, transported to the Pearl Police Department and placed in a holding cell. Surveillance footage from the jail showed the following series of events:
- B.E. knocked on the holding cell door, attempting to communicate to Green that he needed to urinate. Neither Green nor anyone else responded and, after an unspecified amount of time, B.E. walked to the back of the cell and urinated in a corner.
- Green returned and took B.E. to the jail’s booking area.
- The booking area telephone rang and Green answered. He was told B.E. had urinated in the holding cell. Green said to B.E. “Let me tell you somethin’. You see this phone? I will beat your f______ ass with it. You’re fixin’ to go in there and you’re gonna lick that piss up. Do you understand me?”
- B.E. was returned to the holding cell, with Green repeating his command to “lick it up” and “go suck it up right now.” Green stood in the doorway of the holding ceol and again told B.E. to get on the ground and “suck it up.”
- Green took out his cell phone and recorded video of B.E. on the ground licking his urine. B.E. gagged while doing this, with Green responding “don’t spit it out.” B.E. gagged again, and Green said “lick that s--- up. Drink your f-----’ piss,” after which B.E. gagged a third time.
- B.E. was eventually allowed to leave the holding cell and, after returning to the booking area, vomited repeatedly into a garbage can. He was ultimately transported to the Rankin County Detention Center in Brandon, Miss.
Green was fired four days after the encounter with B.E. was seen in surveillance video.
Prior to Thursday’s hearing, Pearl Mayor Jake Windham held a news conference during which he condemned Green’s actions, according to the Associated Press.
“I don’t understand how you treat someone like that,” Windham said.
Green did not dispute any of the allegations as they were read in court Thursday and pleaded guilty to one count of acting under color of law to deprive a person of his civil rights. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 12 and faces up to a year in federal prison.