Pregnant Inmate Claims 3 Guards Kicked, Beat Her

A young pregnant woman said she was beaten by three San Diego County deputies in the Las Colinas jail Tuesday morning, shortly before Sheriff John Duffy publicly denied that inmates were being “systematically brutalized” by his jail guards.

The woman, 21-year-old Evelyn George, shivered and cried during an interview with The Times on Wednesday night in the jail. She appeared shaken and frightened, with a small lump over her left eye and a bald spot on her head. She said the deputies yanked out her hair, kicked her in the back of the neck and slammed her face down on the floor.

She said she is three months pregnant and now fears she is losing her baby because of continuous vaginal bleeding over the past week. She said the bleeding began after she was involved in a fight with another inmate, increased during the subsequent six nights while sleeping on the jail floor and was exacerbated by the assault by deputies on Tuesday.

She said she does not believe that jail nurses simply giving her aspirin was sufficient or proper medical care to treat her condition.

“Now I’m in isolation,” she said. “I can’t have a roommate, and that scares me. The deputies, they come around and bang on the door and yell at me, and it scares me because I don’t know what they’ll do to me next.”

George said she was beaten by deputies about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday in a dispute over a second mattress she had obtained for extra comfort on the floor. Two hours later, Duffy held his first press conference to address the allegations. Duffy could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Officials in the Sheriff’s Department said Thursday morning that they were unaware of the purported beating, the latest in a series of purported assaults against inmates by deputies in the six county jails.

Thursday afternoon, sheriff’s officials said a preliminary internal affairs investigation had found no substance to her allegations.

“However, if she wishes to file a complaint or, should a complaint be filed for her, then our internal affairs investigators will handle it,” said sheriff’s spokesman Liz Foster.

Allegations Prompted FBI Inquiry

George’s allegations prompted an immediate reaction from several outside agencies. Two agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the accusations of widespread abuse in the jails, interviewed her Wednesday afternoon.

The legal director of the local American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed suit over crowded conditions in the jails and is gathering evidence of alleged beatings and inadequate medical care, met with her Wednesday night in the jail.

“We’re very concerned about her medical condition and the possibility that she has not gotten adequate medical care,” said Betty Wheeler.

“We are concerned not only about the allegations that excessive force was used against her by deputies, but also about the intra-inmate violence that may have precipitated a miscarriage. The kind of overcrowding that is present at Las Colinas I think enhances and exacerbates intra-inmate violence, as well as tensions between inmates and deputies.”

In its lawsuit, the ACLU contends that crowding and inadequate medical care are endangering the safety and welfare of inmates. At the time of the alleged beating Tuesday, the Las Colinas facility was at 236% of rated capacity, with 106 women sleeping on the floor.

“And I don’t think pregnant women should be sleeping on the floor,” Wheeler said. “I think they should be getting prenatal care. And, if complications develop, she needs an immediate medical examination.”

Capt. Jim Williams, who supervises the Las Colinas facility, did not return phone calls Thursday for comment about the formal jail procedures for handling pregnant inmates.

Foster said that, when she worked in the Las Colinas jail several years ago, pregnant inmates were treated like the rest of the female population, unless they began suffering serious side effects.

“At three months pregnant, unless she tells you, you probably wouldn’t know it,” Foster said. “But I can’t see treating a pregnant woman any different unless she said she is spotting or thinks she is aborting. Then we would get her to a nurse immediately.”

Meanwhile, Warren Beck, a private attorney, said he has been contacted by George’s family and is reviewing the case to determine whether to file a formal sheriff’s complaint about the alleged assault in the jail, where George is being held under $5,000 bond.

She has been charged with one count of furnishing or selling rock cocaine and one count of failure to appear in court after being released on her own recognizance. She said she has been in the women’s jail for two months, awaiting her trial scheduled for July 1.

According to court records, George is a single parent who is raising three children on welfare.

She said that, when she first arrived in the Las Colinas jail two months ago, she was given a red wristband that alerted jail officials that she was pregnant. She said she also was given one thin mattress for sleeping on the floor.

She said she and another inmate were involved in a fight about a week ago in their crowded cell. After deputies broke up the fight, she said, one of them removed the red band from her wrist.

“The deputy told me pregnant women don’t fight like that,” she said.

Soon after the fight, she said, she began experiencing vaginal bleeding. She said the bleeding continued for six days. She feared she was suffering a miscarriage.

She said the jail clinic only prescribed aspirin. “The nurses come around, and I holler out to them, but they won’t ever stop,” she said.

As the bleeding continued, she said, a sympathetic jail trusty gave her an extra mattress.

“It helped me from hurting so much,” she said.

She said three women deputies came to her cell Tuesday morning, demanding that she give them back the extra mattress.

She said she argued with the deputies and, during the exchange, cursed at them. “They made me step out of the room,” she said.

George, 5 feet, 1 inch tall and weighing about 110 pounds, said they forced her to stand in a corner, then to turn and face a gate, then to sit on a bench. She said the three deputies circled her, one of them accusing her of having an “attitude.”

“I told them, ‘You’d have an attitude too if your body felt like this,” ’ she said.

At that, she was told to stand up. One deputy reached around from behind her and placed her in a chokehold, she said.

“She grabbed my throat, and I spun around,” George said. “The rest of them charged me. They grabbed at me and pulled me.

“I fell to the floor, and one of them kicked me in the back of the neck. They pulled out my hair when I tried to raise up. They took my head from the back and slammed it down.”

She said her screams were answered by a male deputy, who ran up “and seemed to be trying to get the others to back off.”

“He put his knee in my ribs to handcuff me behind my back,” she said. “That was his way of trying to break it up, I think.”

She said she has since been moved to an isolation cell, where she said she was being kept as punishment for purportedly assaulting an officer.

She said she is still experiencing vaginal bleeding and not receiving medical care.