HANCOCK COUNTY — The Indianapolis man who filed a federal lawsuit against the Hancock County Board of Commissioners and three former Hancock County Community Corrections (HCCC) officers was arrested this week for violating the terms of his probation.
According to arrest records from the Hancock County Jail, Ja’Michael Bryant, 21, Indianapolis, was arrested Monday and charged with probation order violation for failing a drug test.
Bryant, who is several months into serving home detention for dealing marijuana from an incident in 2022 has accused the HCCC officials of violating his rights over the course of several months. According to the lawsuit, a HCCC field officer called Bryant who did not answer the phone. However, the phone did not disconnect and recorded a conversation about Bryant by three different HCCC officers.
According to court documents, in the three-minute recording, the three HCCC workers are heard talking to each other about Bryant. The officers refer to Bryant as a “lazy motherf**ker,” a “b**ch,” a “little thuggy.”HCCC workers are then heard saying, “Remember … when we moved him out of the hood? Look at that house,” “that’s too nice for him,” “And he’s got water in the back yard… **ck this mother**cker’s black *ss,” “Little mother**cker.”
The lawsuit states that Bryant was subjected to an unlawful and unreasonable discrimination based on his race. He also suffered embarrassment, humiliation, loss of income, and other damages, the suit states.
Due to the issues, the supervision of his case was transferred to Marion County, however Hancock County still has jurisdiction of Bryant’s case.
Marion County officials reached out to officials in Hancock County earlier this month to make them aware that Bryant had failed two drug tests and was not taking classes, conditions of his probation.
Bryant’s case in Hancock County was heard in Hancock County Superior Court 2 where he took a plea agreement for dealing marijuana. Due to the violation of probation, Judge Dan Marshall ordered the arrest of Bryant on Wednesday, Aug. 2 court records show.
Bryant was arrested Monday but quickly posted a $600 cash bond and was released from the county jail shortly after he was booked in. Court records show Bryant has a hearing on the violation of his probation in HCSC 2 at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25 where Magistrate Cody Coombs will oversee the offense.
