Oak Park Heights inmate charged with partially blinding correctional officer

An Oak Park Heights prison inmate has been charged with assaulting a correctional officer in mid-January, an incident which left the officer blind in one eye.

According to the charges, inmate Dominique Antoine Jefferson approached officers in his complex the morning of Jan. 15, and said he wanted to speak with a member of the crisis intervention team.

A sergeant who is a member of the team approached Jefferson, and Jefferson said he did not want to speak with her. The officer told Jefferson to return to his cell, and he responded by putting on a plastic mouth guard and allegedly saying, "Better ring the bell. I ain't switching in. I've been waiting for you," according to the complaint filed in Washington County District Court.

Jefferson punched the officer in the eye, causing her to fall and bleed profusely from her face, the charges say. He allegedly threatened other officers who restrained him. Jefferson was charged with one count of first-degree assault. Attorney information for Jefferson was not available Friday. He was convicted in 2005 for aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

The injured officer was taken to Regions Hospital, where it was determined that she had significant damage to her right eye and facial fractures. Since the incident, the officer has had several surgeries on her eye, but the retina could not be reattached, leaving her without vision in that eye.

"When you see the level of permanent injury like this with the loss of vision in an eye, that's really disturbing and it has profound impact certainly on her, her family, and on the people who work in this field," Minnesota Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell told the Star Tribune. "I'm glad to see the man will be held to account through this prosecution."

The officer is no longer in the hospital, Schnell said.

The charges come days after six officers were injured during two incidents, one Monday and the other Tuesday, at state prisons. Schnell read from a statement Wednesday about the surge in attacks, saying they are "a troubling reminder of the very real risks correctional staff take in service to the public safety of all Minnesotans."