Tuscaloosa County Jail Officer Hurt in Fourth Assault in a Month

An inmate at the Tuscaloosa County Jail has been charged with assaulting a detention officer there in the fourth such attack less than a month.

According to court documents filed Tuesday, 28-year-old Kenneth Rashaad Robertson was in the Tuscaloosa County Jail Saturday when a detention officer there met him at the door of his "pod" to have Robertson sign paperwork from another government agency.

In the deposition, jail officers say Robertson signed the forms without incident, but then tried to leave the pod to which he was assigned to speak to an inmate in another part of the jail.

The detention officer attempted to stop him and return him to his own living quarters when Robertson allegedly became violent and punched the officer in the face several times with a closed fist before he could be stopped.

The officer's face was severely swollen, his lip was split and his eye blacked, according to the report.

Robertson now faces a second-degree assault charge, a Class C felony.

Four detention officers have now been injured in three separate assaults in the jail in less than a month.

In late November, an inmate allegedly assaulted two officers who were trying to move him from one living space to another and broke several bones in one of their faces. Two weeks before, a detention officer was taken to an area urgent care facility after a handcuffed inmate allegedly bit him.

Both of those inmates were also charged with second-degree assault for their alleged attacks on officers.

Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy, who oversees the jail, said although violence in that setting may not be surprising, it will always have consequences.

"Unfortunately these types of incidents are often seen in jail settings," Abernathy told the Tuscaloosa Thread. "Assaults on officers will not be tolerated, therefore criminal charges have been pursued."