Overview
- Three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office employees, who were booked Tuesday, saw two released on $5,000 bonds while Aljhady Acevedo was ordered held on $27,000 after pleading not guilty Wednesday.
- Investigators say Acevedo punched a handcuffed inmate four times in the face during a July 4, 2024 headcount in the South 10C unit at the Main Detention Center.
- Detectives report that Sgt. Travis Faller wrote a false incident report on his computer claiming the inmate fell in a shower, and Deputy Dennis Smikle signed it despite witnessing the battery.
- The affidavit says Acevedo threatened inmates and had a critic labeled suicidal, placing him in a restrictive mental health unit until a psychologist cleared him and returned him to the general population.
- PBSO says detectives outside the corrections division led the probe and that all three employees are on paid leave as charges including battery, tampering, official misconduct, forgery, and false imprisonment move toward court.