CCI officers reach settlement to get jobs back after death of inmate

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – WINK NEWS has confirmed two Charlotte Correctional Institution officers reached settlement agreements to get their jobs back.

Ten officers were fired after an inmate died in the prison back in April.

New details were released about what caused the death of Matthew Walker. The death certificate says there was asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head, neck and torso.

The Corrections Officer’s Union head says there’s no way that 10 officers needed to be fired.

“Ten officers were fired from this facility,” said Bill Curtis with the Teamsters Local 2011. The group represents all the officers who were fired after the incident.

Curtis says Walker was the one who first attacked the correctional officers, seriously injuring two of them. “Miss Harrington is a 61-year-old female employee, of course, and that’s very serious thing to be knocked unconscious,” said Curtis.

He says another officer was somehow cut.

The fired officers have reached a settlement with the state to get their jobs back but will not actually be back on the job until the criminal investigation is over.

“What the eventual facts and evidence that comes out, I feel very confident that many of them if not all of them will secure employment back,” Curtis added.

Late this afternoon, the State Attorney’s Office confirmed that it is looking into whether any corrections officers will face criminal charges.