Clarksburg, W.Va. (AP) -- A corrections officer at the industrial home for youth has been acquitted of charges that he participated in the beating of a shackled youth.

A Harrison County Circuit Court jury found 39-year-old James M. Hustead of Lumberport not guilty of unlawful assault thursday after 50 minutes of deliberation.

Hustead was one of four officers charged in the Oct. 14 incident.

State police said the boy was restrained, then dragged, in leg restraints, to the security unit, where the alleged beating occurred.

During the trial, the youth could only identify one assailant, 36-year-old Robert Reed of Clarksburg.

Reed had pleaded guilty earlier to misdemeanor battery and was sentenced to house arrest with some weekends in jail.

The other cases are pending.

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