Guards sentenced on cruelty charges after forcing inmates to listen to ‘Baby Shark’

Two Oklahoma City jail guards who forced inmates to listen to the song “Baby Shark” as punishment were sentenced on a cruelty charge last week, according to USA Today.

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Gregory Cornell Butler Jr. and Christian Charles Miles pleaded no contest to the charge and were sentenced to two years of probation.

The two were also fined $200, ordered to pay $300 in victim’s compensation and sentenced to complete 40 hours of community service.

Butler, 24, and Miles, 23, are banned from working in law enforcement during a two-year probation term, according to The Washington Post.

According to The Oklahoman, the guards chained prisoners to the wall and forced them to listen to the children’s song “Baby Shark” on a loop at loud volumes for hours at a time.

“Baby Shark” was described as “the year’s most annoying song” by The Guardian and The Irish Times in 2018.

According to an affidavit, the pair admitted that they had “systematically worked together and used the ... (song) as a means to discipline inmates and teach them a lesson because they felt that disciplinary action within the Detention Center was not working in correcting the behavior of the inmates.”

Both officers were named as defendants in a 2021 lawsuit over the incident. Four former Oklahoma County Detention Center inmates claim they were tortured by the officers and filed suit over their alleged treatment.

One of the former inmates suing the guards was found dead in a cell over the weekend.

John Basco, 48, was found unresponsive Sunday morning in his cell at the Oklahoma County Detention Center, according to The Associated Press.

Basco was discovered when detention officers were doing site checks, the Oklahoma County Detention Center said in a news release