After DUI suspect was beaten in jail; corrections officer arrested

Suspect says he remembers waking up in a pool of his own blood

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – James Camuso said he can barely remember the night he was knocked out inside the Duval County jail. After all, he admitted, he was drinking prior to his arrest.

"I remember waking up in a pool of blood on a linoleum floor and a big red puddle of blood next to my eye," Camuso recalled in an interview with News4Jax.

But the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office shed some light on what happened when Undersheriff Pat Ivey announced the arrest Thursday of corrections officer William Shane Libby.

Libby, 23, is charged with aggravated battery on an inmate and official misconduct after police said he punched a handcuffed Camuso in the face, breaking his nose.

Ivey said Camuso, 62, was arrested April 17 in Neptune Beach on suspicion of driving under the influence. Unable to stand on his own, Camuso had to be placed in a wheelchair.

He said Libby, who was under the impression that Camuso was exaggerating his level of intoxication, lost his cool and attacked him. He said Libby then filed an inaccurate report about the incident.

Camuso's said his memory of the incident is foggy. When he awoke a second time, there was a cloth on his face, something he said paramedics deemed necessary because he was coughing up blood.

At some point during the intake process, Camuso wondered aloud who had struck him. He said he was told that he had fallen.

But someone spoke up. A copy of Libby's arrest report indicated it was another Sheriff's Office employee who came forward with a complaint.

Camuso said that should be the standard. "It's about time that something actually came out of the JSO intakes," he said. "I have heard stories and actually seen incidents there."

Libby, who had been with the agency for just 15 months, was fired immediately because he was still in his probationary period and did not qualify for civil protections, Ivey said.

"If you noticed, this is probably third (officer) arrest for battery," Ivey said. "They know what to do. This was something that was done wrong. This was not a training issue."


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