A federal grand jury has indicted three V.I. police officers on St. Croix on a variety of charges, including civil rights violations.
Indicted on Tuesday were officers Adrian Williams and Luis Torres, both three-year veterans, and John Hardy, a six-year veteran, according to V.I. Police Commissioner Franz Christian.
The indictments resulted from an ongoing FBI investigation into civil rights violations, theft and unlawful arrest, said St. Croix Deputy Police Chief Novelle Francis.
Francis said the charges involved larceny and minor acts of violence. He could not give further details.
Hardy and Torres were arraigned in U.S. District Court on St. Croix on Wednesday and released on a $25,000 unsecured bond. Both officers are expected to report weekly to the U.S. Office of Probation, Christian said.
Francis said that when the department was notified of the investigation, the officers were placed on administrative leave with pay.
"As soon as they were indicted they were placed on leave without pay," he said.
The federal indictments follow the convictions of three St. Croix officers on a variety of charges last July, including civil rights violations, assault with a deadly weapon, brandishing a handgun, and oppression. Ronald Pickard, Dean Bates and Renaldo Philbert are in a federal prison on Puerto Rico awaiting sentencing for incidents that occurred between Jan. 1, 1995 and Oct. 31, 1999. The civil rights violations carry a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison while the handgun violations carry five-year sentences.
A fourth officer, Victor Suarez, was also accused of a number of crimes, but was freed after the jury couldn’t agree on three of the counts levied against him and found him not guilty on the others. He has since resigned from the force.
