Former Benner state prison guard accused of hitting inmate pleads no contest
A former Benner state prison sergeant who was fired after being accused of hitting an inmate in the head and leg pleaded no contest and was sentenced Friday.
Dustin Holt, 35, pleaded no contest to one summary count of harassment. One misdemeanor count of official oppression was dropped. The plea meant he accepted the conviction, but did not expressly admit he committed the crime.
He was sentenced by Centre County Judge Brian Marshall to 20 hours of community service. Holt, who was scheduled to stand trial Monday, declined an opportunity to offer a statement before his sentence was handed down.
“This is an excellent resolution of these charges against him,” defense lawyer Karen Muir said after the hearing. “He didn’t admit that he did anything and now he can look forward to getting back to his life as a good father without this hanging over his head.”
Holt, who is white, was accused of hitting the Black inmate at least a half-dozen times and hurling racial slurs at him in March 2020. The inmate was left with a bruised thigh and an abrasion on his left hand, an investigator wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
He was fired in July 2020, a state Department of Corrections spokesperson wrote in an email.