Former ECI CO: The Prison is a "Ticking Time Bomb"

MARYLAND - An Eastern Correctional Institution correctional officer pleaded guilty today to charges related to the cover-up of an assault on an inmate.

The Department of Justice says 37-year-old David Quillen, of Ocean View, Delaware, pleaded guilty today to conspiring to obstruct justice and to destruction of records. Quillen was a correctional officer at the Eastern Correction Institution (ECI) when a fellow officer unlawfully assaulted an inmate.

According to his guilty plea, on July 12, 2021, while working at ECI, Quillen learned that another officer had used force against an inmate. Upon learning of the incident, Quillen responded to the scene with a video camera and began recording the inmate. While Quillen filmed him, the inmate asserted that he had been assaulted by a correctional officer—Officer Samuel Warren—for no reason. The inmate also cried, and was visibly injured, with blood on his face, according to the DOJ.

The DOJ says after Quillen stopped filming, he and other officers watched the video Quillen had filmed. While watching the video, a supervisory officer commented that the video did not look good for Warren and indicated that the video should be deleted. Warren agreed, and Quillen and other officers agreed to lie about the deletion. Understanding that the video contained evidence that Warren’s use of force against the inmate had been unlawful, Quillen deleted the video.

Following the deletion, Quillen reportedly lied about what happened to the video, including to supervisors at ECI, and to state and federal investigators.

Warren has since admitted that he unlawfully assaulted the inmate and has pleaded guilty to federal offenses related to that assault.

Quillen faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy to obstruct justice and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for destruction of records. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for May 22, 2024.