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Sister of Knox inmate says he suffers from mental illness

Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN) - 1/25/2015

Jan. 25--The sister of the Knox County inmate at the center of a beating investigation said her brother took a swing at officers but suffers from mental illness and needs treatment, not jail.

Rosa Flack said Saturday she was shocked when she saw video of her brother, Louis Warren Flack, 52, being subdued the morning of Nov. 28 at the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility. The footage from a jail security camera led to an internal investigation that resulted in one officer being fired, another quitting and two others being suspended.

"That hurt me so bad to see them beat my brother down like this," the sister said.

The video released by the Knox County Sheriff's Office shows officers punching and kneeing Flack, who was jailed on a charge of aggravated assault, while another officer shoots video. Authorities haven't released that video and have refused to say whether the officers involved will face criminal charges.

Flack's sister said she believes he tried to hit one of the officers but says that's no excuse for how he was treated.

He "swung at them one time, and they beat hell out of him," she said.

Flack said her brother developed mental and emotional problems when their mother died in 1993. After serving in the military, he worked as a roofer and then went on disability because of his mental problems, she said.

"He feels like there is three different voices in him," she said.

She said her younger brother tried and failed to get treatment for Flack, who refused to take medication. That same day, Flack beat the brother with a shovel and went to jail, she said.

"I told police several times he has got bipolar disorder where you hear different voices," she said.

Knox County Sheriff Jimmy "J.J." Jones wouldn't respond to the sister's claims Saturday.

"I'm unable to comment at this time with the possibility of litigation pending," he said.

He didn't give specifics.

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