Former Georgia jail guard abused inmates with Taser and lied about it,
authorities say
[June 19, 2025]
By JEFF AMY
ATLANTA (AP) — A former Fulton County jail guard has been indicted on
federal civil rights charges after prosecutors said she used her Taser
abusively against three inmates and then lied to cover it up.
Khadijah Solomon, a 47-year-old Fairburn resident, pleaded not guilty to
the six-count indictment in federal court in Atlanta on Tuesday and was
released on bail. The troubled jail where Solomon worked has been under
a federal civil rights investigation for the past two years and was also
the site where Donald Trump surrendered on election interference charges
in 2023.
Solomon's lawyer, Devin Rafus, said his client will fight the
allegations.
“The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is under a lot of political pressure
with the Department of Justice investigating the jail,” Rafus said via
email. “My client is collateral damage of that pressure.”
The June 11 indictment said Solomon used her Taser “without legal
justification" against separate inmates at the Atlanta jail on Jan. 16,
Jan. 25 and Jan. 27. The indictment alleges that Solomon then wrote
reports falsely justifying what she did.
In reality, sheriff's office investigators said body-worn camera video
showed the pretrial detainees were compliant and not resisting.

In the Jan. 16 incident, sheriff's office investigators said Solomon
approached an inmate who was kicking his cell door and said she was
about to “pop” him before opening the cell and using the Taser on the
inmate. Investigators said Solomon then stunned the inmate twice more.
She later claimed in her report that the inmate “was getting ready to
throw” a tray at her.
The sheriff's office in February announced that it had fired Solomon and
two other jail officers — Chantrece Buggs and LaQuondria Pierce —
arrested them, and charged them with state crimes including aggravated
assault and violating their oath of office. Solomon, a jail sergeant,
was also charged with cruelty to inmates and false statements or
writings.
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Vehicles are parked outside the Fulton County Jail, April 11, 2023,
in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Kate Brumback, File)

At the time, investigators said Pierce used her Taser without
justification on an inmate Feb. 13 and Buggs encouraged Solomon's
violence. No federal charges against the other two were announced,
and neither has yet been indicted in a state court.
Rafus, who is also the lawyer representing Pierce, did not
immediately respond to an email seeking comment on her state
charges.
Natalie Ammons, a spokesperson for Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat,
said the sheriff's office had worked with the FBI in the Solomon
case.
“On three occasions, Khadijah Solomon allegedly tased Fulton County
Jail detainees without a legitimate purpose, causing each of them
pain and injury," U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg said in a
statement. "Abuses of power of this kind are unconstitutional, erode
our community’s trust, and will be prosecuted.”
The U.S. Justice Department in July 2023 opened a civil rights
investigation into jail conditions in Fulton County, citing
violence, filthy living quarters and the in-custody death of a man
whose body was found covered in insects. That investigation found
that jail officers didn't receive adequate training and guidance on
the use of force and were found to engage in “a pattern or practice
of using excessive force” against people in county custody.
The Justice Department and Fulton County officials announced in
January that they had entered into a court-enforceable consent
decree. An independent monitor was appointed in February to oversee
that agreement.
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