MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma announced that Donovan Matthew Pruett, age 24, of Checotah, Oklahoma, was sentenced to 36 months of probation for one count of Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law.The charge arose from an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.On November 24, 2025, Pruett entered a guilty plea in federal district court. According to investigators, on September 28, 2024, while on duty and working in an official capacity as an Okfuskee County jailer, Pruett physically assaulted a restrained individual at the Okfuskee County Jail after the individual spat on him. Pruett’s assault caused the victim bodily injury.Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 242 makes it a crime for any person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or the laws of the United States.
Federal, state, and local officials, including police officers, prison guards, and other law enforcement officials, act under “color of law” when they act or claim to act in the performance of official duties, regardless of whether that official is operating inside or outside of the bounds of their lawful authority.The Honorable Ronald A. White, Senior District Judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, presided over the hearing.Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Paladino, in consultation with the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, represented the United States.