Officers assaulted, threatened to kill man at high security GA prison, Macon lawsuit says
A man held at a high-security Georgia prison has accused several Georgia corrections officers of severely beating him and threatening to kill him, according to a federal lawsuit filed Friday.
Caesar Rogers, who was convicted of a 2008 murder in Crisp County and is serving life in prison, has sued 15 corrections officers, alleging they retaliated against him through verbal abuse and violence after he accused the Special Management Unit of violating constitutional rights in a class-action lawsuit, according to court and prison records.
Rogers’ lawyer, Zack Greenamyre, wrote in the lawsuit that the threats and assaults happened at that same facility, a high-security state prison in Jackson. The Special Management Unit, which is on the same property as the Georgia Diagnostic Class Prison, has been open since 2006, according to the state. It houses 192 people and is reserved for adult male felons, the Georgia Department of Corrections says.
Rogers is still among that prison population, state prison records show. Rogers’ lawsuit has been filed in the Macon division of federal court.
“In retaliation for Plaintiff’s protected speech activity, including meeting with his legal counsel, filing grievances, and orally complaining about other misconduct, Defendants used violence against him,” Rogers’ lawsuit says.
The lawsuit represents one side of a legal argument. The Georgia Department of Corrections has not filed a legal reply, and did not respond to requests for comment from The Telegraph prior to publication.
Man threatened, hurt, called a ‘rat’ by Georgia prison staff
Rogers’ lawsuit says he suffered threats and assaults in late 2023 into early 2024.
Prison staff were likely to face sanctions because they repeatedly defied court orders in another case regarding unconstitutional conditions inside the facility, according to Rogers’ lawsuit, and Rogers was regularly communicating with legal counsel. Officers viewed him as a “snitch” and accused him of “ratting” on them for misconduct at the prison, the lawsuit says.
Officers are accused in the lawsuit of wrongly taking away items that Rogers purchased from commissary, such as bars of soap.
The officers “put slices of cheese on Mr. Rogers’ cell door to label him a ‘rat’ for others to see,” Greenamyre wrote in the lawsuit.
The issues escalated in April 2024 when Rogers was sprayed with “OC spray,” or pepper spray, for no valid reason, according to the lawsuit. Officers sprayed it through the flap in his prison cell. One of the officers in that incident “told Mr. Rogers that he was going to be killed,” the lawsuit says.
Things got worse the next day, on April 9, 2024, according to the lawsuit. About 10 emergency response officers showed up at Rogers’ door for a “cell extraction,” then proceeded to “inflict significant violence on Mr. Rogers that caused serious injuries,” the lawsuit says.
During the assault, Rogers was told to “stop resisting,” despite not resisting the officers, according to the lawsuit. He was hit with a metal baton in the head and hand, which broke his hand.
“These (baton) strikes included repeated blows after Mr. Rogers was handcuffed and not resisting (and otherwise incapable of resisting),” the lawsuit said.
Officers also used a taser on Rogers, as well as pepper spray, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that officers “selectively filmed” the assault, so commands to “stop resisting” were heard on audio, but the video camera was pointed away from the altercation so that viewers couldn’t see that Rogers was not resisting.
“The violent attack lasted approximately ten minutes, and during most of this time, Mr. Rogers was handcuffed and not resisting (and not capable of resisting),” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says Rogers was “dragged” to medical care at the prison, leaving a trail of blood. An officer threatened Rogers not to talk about the incident, saying he knew where Rogers’ daughter lived.
A doctor at the prison insisted Rogers needed to be taken to a hospital, the lawsuit says. He needed 23 staples in his head to stem the bleeding and four stitches to close a wound on his ear. In addition to suffering a broken hand, he also had a concussion which caused headaches and blurred vision.
Prison officials attempted to justify the use of force from emergency response officers by saying they were there to retrieve bleach and soap given to Rogers to clean his cell, according to the lawsuit.
“But this was obviously false, as no one ever asked Mr. Rogers for these materials (and if they had, he would have returned them), and Defendants otherwise allowed incarcerated men to possess these cleaning materials,” Greenamyre wrote in the lawsuit.
Greenamyre also wrote that officers claimed Rogers threatened to kill a corrections officer, which Greenamyre says is false.
Longstanding problems at this high-security prison
The lawsuit says use of force against restrained and handcuffed incarcerated people is common at the Special Management Unit, as is other types of misconduct.
“The attack on Mr. Rogers happened weeks after a federal judge found there was ample evidence that GDC officials had maliciously prosecuted an investigator who had met with a man incarcerated at the SMU, framing her for bringing drugs into the facility based on ‘categorically untrue’ statements,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit references the case of Lily Engelman, who was wrongly arrested on charges of giving contraband to an incarcerated client, then later paid $750,000 by the state, according to multiple media reports.
The prior legal case, for which Rogers was allegedly viewed as a rat for participating in, yielded a scathing order from a judge regarding conditions at this prison.
A class-action lawsuit filed by the prison’s population against the prison accused the Georgia Department of Corrections of violating constitutional rights by not providing minimal conditions of confinement, such as outdoor exercise time, access to showers and books, according to Georgia Public Broadcasting.
That lawsuit led the GDC and the plaintiffs to agree on terms to improve conditions several years ago. But last year, Chief U.S. District Judge for Georgia’s Middle District Marc Treadwell wrote in an order that officials at the facility showed “no desire or intention to comply.”
Who’s being sued?
Rogers’ lawsuit names 15 corrections officials as defendants:
- Joe Williams, Jr.
- De’Marcus Holloway
- Leondre Kincy
- Asanie Ansine
- Myles Calhoun
- Kenneth Lucas, Jr.
- Jeffrey Davis
- Justin Thomas
- Carmyhah Robinson
- Kenneth Graves, Jr.
- Johnathan Clark
- Andrew Pendleton
- Lee Major
- Flemister Wiley
- Dennis Turner
Major was a unit manager during the time of the incidents. Wiley and Turner were deputy wardens. Williams was the warden. It was unclear if any of the officers involved have since left the agency.
Rogers is accusing the more than dozen officers of excessive force, conspiracy to obstruct justice and free speech retaliation. He wants a jury trial in court and to be paid damages, his lawsuit says.
This story was originally published October 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM.