DeKalb Sheriff Captain Charged With Encouraging Excessive Force

Leonard Dreyer, a captain with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, has been arraigned on charges of encouraging a former corrections officer to use excessive force against a DeKalb County jail inmate.

Dreyer, a Decatur resident, was also charged with obstructing justice by making false statements to an FBI agent investigating the allegations.

Dwight Hamilton, a former corrections officer, was indicted earlier this year for using excessive force and writing false reports. He has been charged in the same indictment with additional counts of excessive force and obstruction of justice.

Dreyer began working for the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office in 2004 and worked as a supervisor in the jail from 2010 -2012. Hamilton worked in the jail from 2005-2012. Prosecutors say in 2011 and 2012, Hamilton, who was supervised by Dreyer, used his Taser multiple times on inmates without justification. The superseding indictment charges that in all five instances, Hamilton used excessive force and violated the inmates’ constitutional rights.

Following four of the five tasing incidents, Hamilton allegedly wrote a false report with to obstruct the investigation.