JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former corrections officer accused of beating a woman who was shackled in the Duval County jail in 2018 was found not guilty Wednesday.
A jury found Catherine Thompson, now 24, not guilty of one count of misdemeanor battery and two counts of felony official misconduct.
Kirenda Welch, who told News4Jax that she was five weeks pregnant at the time, was arrested in the summer of 2018 on a charge of driving without a valid license — which court records show has since been dismissed. Police said that Welch encountered Thompson while being searched at the jail, the two exchanged insults, and then Thompson beat Welch after she was placed in four-point restraints, meaning she was handcuffed and her legs were shackled, and her hands and legs were connected by a chain. Thompson was arrested and immediately fired from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, as she was still in her probationary period, after the incident.
A jury was selected Monday, and Thompson’s trial started Tuesday.
The first day of the trial included testimony from Welch and two correction officers and former co-workers of Thompson, as well as interrogation video.
“She punched my head into the wall — which caused me to fall back from the bench. After I fell back from the first punch, she just continued to punch me at least between 10 and 20 times, and she was about to choke me,” Welch said.
Thompson said she hit Welch because Welch bit her, but two correction officers and former co-workers of Thompson testified Tuesday that it didn’t happen that way.
One of the corrections officers was asked: “You see Ms. Thompson turn around and strike Ms. Welch?” She responded: “Yes ma’am?”
The other corrections officer was asked: “Did you see Ms. Welch fight Ms. Thompson before Ms. Thompson punched her?” He replied: “I did not.”
Before the prosecution rested its case Tuesday, it played a video of Thompson being interrogated by two JSO detectives, who kept telling Thompson that her written report about what happened was inconsistent with what they heard from eyewitnesses and Welch. After repeating her version of what happened, they told her a warrant was issued for her arrest. Then, in the video, she can be heard saying: “I guess I punched her in the face and I took her to the ground and I started beating the **** out of her. I guess that’s the truth.”
On day two of the trial, which started Wednesday morning, Thompson took the stand in her own defense.
“You can say that in a situation, you know what you are going to do if you’re ever in it, but until you’re in it, you really don’t know what to do,” Thompson said.
Thompson said she acted unprofessionally as a corrections officer when she got into a heated argument with Welch inside the jail.
When asked whether her behavior at that point was irrational, Welch said: “At that point in time and that certain conversation, yes sir. It was very immature.”
Welch said the action she took against Welch was warranted, saying she acted in self-defense.
“After she bit me, I responded in self-defense and hit her four times,” Thompson said.
She also explained to the jury her version of the interrogation video.
“I had two grown men looking at me and telling me I was lying, and they wouldn’t listen, even after I kept on. They kept on saying I was lying, and that’s very hard. So at that time, I said, ‘I will say anything you want me to say to get out of there,’” Thompson said.
But during cross-examination, the prosecution kept insisting Thompson was not telling the truth and that her story of events was still inconsistent with witness testimony.
“I came here to testify and finally be heard and not told I’m lying,” Thompson said.
Both sides then presented final arguments before the jury began deliberating about 2:30 p.m.
The verdict was handed down the not guilty verdict less than two hours later.
Welch and her family who attended the trial did not wish to speak with News4Jax after the verdict, nor did Thompson and her family.
But Jessica Goldsborough, Thompson’s defense attorney, spoke with News4Jax about why she thinks the jury sided with her client. She said allowing her client to take the stand in her own defense humanized her. She also said it also allowed the jury to decide who was more credible: her client or the woman who her client was accused of attacking.
“There was no other way they would be able to hear from he, her side of the story and her point of view of what happened, and I think that was important,” Goldsborough said. “I think that we were very happy with how her testimony went over, our client’s. And I think the alleged victim’s testimony did not go over as well, and I think that both of those things are what strongly contributed to the outcome.”
In addition to the criminal trial, Thompson is also facing a civil lawsuit from Welch.