Inmate Claims of Assaults by Deputies Rise : Federal Authorities Expand Probe of Jail

More than 50 inmates in San Diego County’s jails have alleged that sheriff’s deputies have assaulted them since 1985, by punching and kicking them, slamming them head first into concrete walls and steel bars, dragging them by the hair down jailhouse corridors, and throwing them naked and bleeding into dirty isolation cells.

In claims filed against the county, in meetings with attorneys for the local ACLU and in interviews with The Times, the inmates said that over the past several years they have suffered concussions, broken bones, bruised limbs and broken teeth, and that the beatings often occurred after they were stripped of their clothing and had their hands cuffed behind their backs.

Some inmates who said they were not assaulted shuddered as they described hearing the thud of fists and feet striking flesh after cellmates were dragged away by deputies.

Pattern More Widespread

The volume of alleged beatings shows a pattern of complaints far more widespread in all of the county’s jails than was first reported last month when Orned (Chicken) Gabriel said he was beaten by deputies in the El Cajon Detention Facility.

After Gabriel made his allegations, and after several inmates described a brutal “Rambo Squad” at the El Cajon jail, the U.S. attorney’s office began an investigation into possible civil rights violations.

The Times has interviewed 13 current and former inmates who said they were assaulted by deputies. On file at the county claims office are complaints from 36 more inmates who allege they were beaten by deputies during the past two years. The American Civil Liberties Union has taken statements from five more inmates who said they were attacked.

Federal Investigation Broadened

The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, in response to the variety of complaints, have broadened their investigation beyond the El Cajon jail and have begun contacting former inmates of the Vista and Las Colinas jails.

Sheriff John Duffy did not respond to requests for interviews Thursday and Friday. His secretaries said he has told them he would not answer questions about the situation and that he wanted all inquiries referred to the sheriff’s public affairs unit.

Sgt. Bob Takeshta, a sheriff’s spokesman, said Friday that he did not think 54 inmate allegations of abuse is a significant number, noting that the downtown jail books 3,000 inmates a month and that Vista and Las Colinas book hundreds more.

“That would be very minimal when you consider the number of inmates we process and the number of inmates deputies come in contact with,” he said. “The number of inmates we see is very substantial.”

Duffy, asked at a press conference last week about the alleged beatings, said many of those complaining were merely making “me-too” allegations following those made by Gabriel.

But the 13 inmates interviewed by The Times discussed their cases only after the newspaper learned their names and contacted them first.

Majority Said to Be Silent

Tom Adler, an attorney who has represented injured inmates, said the vast majority of inmates do not complain about assaults because they fear reprisal from deputies.

“A lot of these guys are losers and accept this as part of the way things go,” he said.

Betty Wheeler, legal director of the ACLU in San Diego, said publicity in the Gabriel case has triggered a flood of inquiries from past and current inmates.

“Every time I come back to my office, I have 12 new phone slips saying the same thing happened to them,” she said.

One inmate, 35-year-old Alvin Young, said he was jailed for assault and that “when I first got to the El Cajon jail, the deputy sergeant stood me up and said there were only three ways I was going to get out.”

“He said you either bail out, you serve your time, or you leave here when you come back from the doctor. I knew exactly what he was talking about.”

Young said the worst injury he suffered was being kicked in the arm by a deputy. Other alleged beatings have ended with more severe consequences.

Albert Manuel Varela died in January after deputies placed him in a chokehold in the downtown jail. The Sheriff’s Department is investigating that case.

Charles Castro said he was beaten so badly that he was unable to walk when he was released in November from the Vista jail. He said he had to be transported by paramedics to a hospital and now is undergoing therapy for paralysis.

Sgt. Takeshta declined to discuss specific cases and said he does not keep statistics showing how many internal affairs investigations have resulted in complaints being sustained.

Payments Are Rare

Takeshta said the sheriff’s office investigates each formal written complaint on a “case-by-case” basis and that the more serious claims of physical abuse are handled by the sheriff’s internal affairs unit, while jail supervisors look into less egregious complaints, “like if your clothing gets torn.”

Thomas L. Brown, county claims supervisor, said the county has agreed to pay damages in only two cases of inmate claims of brutality by deputies during the past five years.

One involved a man attacked in the downtown jail. Brown said he was unable to discuss the other case because it dates to 1983 and the paper work is in storage.

Six Months to File

He said that, by law, an inmate has six months from the date of an injury in which to file a claim. His office forwards the claim to the sheriff’s internal affairs unit, which investigates the case and sends it back to the claims department with a recommendation as to settlement.

He said the internal affairs unit, which does not always interview the inmate, rarely concludes that the claim is justified. And he said his office rarely disagrees with that report or conducts additional interviews.

“It would be a rare exception if we would disagree with their findings,” he said.

If the complaint is rejected, the claimant then has the right to sue the county.

‘Police State Exists’

Jim Butler, a former military chaplain living in Vista, filed a lawsuit after allegedly suffering a dislocated shoulder three years ago in the jail there.

He has called for a grand jury investigation and for the creation of a citizens review board to monitor jail activity.

“These assaults are barbaric,” he said. “A police state exists in San Diego County, and something should be done about it.”

Like Butler, other individuals are now coming forward to tell stories of beatings that differ only in the names of the inmates and the location of the jail in which they allegedly were attacked.

Inmates at the El Cajon Detention Facility have described a “Rambo Squad” of seven deputies who prey on inmates in the middle of the night.

Kerry Attchison said deputies assaulted him in June after he tried to file a grievance over the loss of his visitation rights.

“They came to my cell and attacked me, knocking me unconscious and kicking me in the ribs,” he said. “They handcuffed and drug me up and down the tier (corridor), yelling obscenities at me.”

Simplest of Excuses

Robert A. Robertson, an 18-year-old sailor, said he served about 200 days in the El Cajon jail on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. He recalled deputies roaming the halls in the middle of the night, provoking fights.

Robertson said deputies turned violent on the simplest of excuses, such as the time they found an extra plastic cup in a jail tank.

He said they forced all of the tank’s inmates to kneel down, facing the wall, with their hands behind their heads.

“Then they kicked us in the back,” he said. “They took me out of the cell, and the deputy slammed the top of my forehead against the wall. Then he picked me up by the back of the shirt and threw me back into the cell, and when I came through, my chest hit the side of the bed rack.”

Inmates in the Vista jail said they were stripped and beaten while being held overnight for drunken-driving offenses.

Robert Joseph Moreland said: “I was picked up, dropped, kicked, struck, threatened and generally abused on two occasions by a deputy sheriff.”

Kipp Cronk Van Aken said in a claim that a deputy’s assault left him suffering “contusions, abrasions, lacerations, subconjunctival hematoma to the left eye and a 1-inch-diameter abrasion to the lower sternum.”

Stood Up for Someone

Judy Hejduk of Encinitas, a 40-year-old airline stewardess and mother of two, was arrested two years ago at a sobriety checkpoint.

She said she told deputies she had consumed two glasses of wine at her cousin’s wake and that she was then taken to the Vista jail, where she was kept almost 12 hours.

She said she tried to speak up for another inmate and that the deputies then forced her into an isolation cell, stripped her and chained her naked, beating and kicking her repeatedly.

‘A Killer Instinct’

She remembers lying naked on the cold floor, gathering up strands of loose hair she said were left over from other assaults.

“They came at me with a killer instinct,” she said. “They were like hooded street people with badges. I call them pigs.”

Inmates at the Las Colinas jail for women said female deputies have beaten prisoners.

Colleen Mills, arrested for drunken driving, said she was stripped and assaulted by several deputies.

“All of a sudden five deputies were all over me, bending and twisting my arms like they were spaghetti noodles and pulling my hair out by the roots in handfuls,” she said.

At one point, she said, “I heard a snapping sound in my right shoulder and felt a numbing sensation go through my neck and upper back.”

Nita Van Heest, a law school graduate living in Vista, served five months at Las Colinas. She was sent there after her 10th arrest for drunken driving in as many years, she said.

Although she said she was not attacked, she remembers seeing and hearing other inmates assaulted by deputies.

“Brutal people, oh my God,” she said. “They’d just take people by the hair and throw them against the wall. Terrible, terrible beatings.

“And I saw it time and time and time again. I actually saw blood on the wall. On my own cell door I found blood where they smashed a girl’s head.”