A former Rockbridge County Regional Jail superintendent convicted on several charges earlier this year learned his fate on Tuesday.

LEXINGTON, Va. – John Higgins, the former superintendent of the Rockbridge County Regional Jail, and a former member of the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors, was convicted on Sunday of multiple charges related to federal civil rights violations and corruption. He was found guilty of failing to protect inmates from physical abuse and preventing an inmate from getting medical care. AdThen in February 2017, investigators listened to a prison phone call that claimed that abusers knocked out some, or all, of that inmate’s teeth. He and another inmate were hit with hard objects and forced by other inmates to drink bleach. “I am proud of the hard work put in by our partners at the FBI and VSP and our prosecution team that brought about this just result.”

The man who used to run Rockbridge County’s jail is now a felon himself. John Marshall Higgins, the former superintendent of the Rockbridge County Regional Jail, and a former member of the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors, was convicted Sunday on multiple charges related to federal civil rights violations and public corruption. While superintendent, Higgins accepted things of value from the family and friends of an inmate serving a three-year sentence at the jail in exchange for giving that inmate preferential treatment. The evidence demonstrated that in exchange for these payments, the inmate, who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter, received significant privileges while at the jail. The inmate was only provided medical care after other staff members sent the inmate to the hospital emergency room.

LYNCHBURG, Va. - The previous superintendent of Rockbridge County jail is now facing new charges after a superseding indictment, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The new charges also allege that he accepted gifts from an inmate's family member in exchange for preferential treatment. On Thursday, he was charged in a superseding indictment on two counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and 15 counts of mail fraud. The original indictment alleges that Higgins failed to protect the right of Rockbridge County Regional Jail inmates from physical abuse, resulting in inmate injuries. The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Virginia State Police with help from the Commonwealth Attorney's Office for Rockbridge County.