Indicted for civil rights violation and obstruction of justice, a former police officer with the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Police Department in Indianapolis has been accused of beating a compliant patient outside of a VA hospital. After the assault, Officer Michael Kaim allegedly wrote a false report in order to justify his use of excessive force on the innocent patient.
While escorting a patient out of the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center on April 18, 2017, Kaim repeatedly struck the victim’s head and face without legal justification. After causing “bodily injury” to the patient, Kaim allegedly wrote an incident report falsely accusing the unidentified victim of acting aggressively, refusing to comply with the officer’s orders to leave the building, and resisting his attempts to escort him from the facility.
But according to the indictment, the patient “was following the defendant’s orders and exiting the Veterans Affairs Medical facility when the defendant used illegal and unjustifiable force against him.” Instead of resisting, the victim had been complying with Kaim’s orders when he was suddenly attacked without provocation.
Shortly after Kaim’s indictment was announced, the medical center issued the following statement: “The Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center works to uphold the highest traditions of human respect and law abiding behavior. It is extremely distressing that one of our former police officers has been indicted for illegal conduct. The bright light for our Veterans and staff is that it was our own internal investigation that resulted in this individual being discharged from VA employment and subsequently indicted in Federal Court. The individual named has not been convicted of any crime, and we do respect his right to due process. He is no longer an employee of the VA.
“We want to assure Veterans in need of Medical care that they will be treated with the honor and respect they deserve. We do not tolerate any disrespectful or illegal behavior by any member of our staff. We stand ready to serve Veterans and hold every employee to the highest standards of lawful and respectful behavior.”
If convicted, Kaim faces up to 10 years in federal prison on the civil rights charge and up to 20 years on the obstruction of justice charge.
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