Acquitted Killer of Officer Files Suit Against Jail Guards

The man who was acquitted of murder in the 1985 slaying of a San Diego police officer after two racially charged trials has filed a lawsuit accusing sheriff’s deputies in Vista of beating him in a separate case last year.

Meecee Parks, also known as Sagon Penn, this week filed a $1.5-million lawsuit in Vista Superior Court, charging that deputies at County Jail in Vista beat, terrorized and discriminated against him during a 1991 jail stint.

The lawsuit names the county of San Diego, Sheriff Jim Roache, Deputy Kevin Bombard and other unidentified deputies. The lawsuit asks for general and punitive damages of $1.5 million, plus unspecified medical expenses and attorney costs.

Parks, who is black, was acquitted twice in the shooting death seven years ago of Police Agent Thomas Riggs after attorneys for Parks argued that police officers attacked Parks and used derogatory racial terms.

Attorney Richard Eiden of Oceanside says that Vista jail deputies followed the same pattern of “racial hostility” against his client in the 1991 case.

The alleged assault occurred on the morning of March 17, 1991, while Parks was in jail for battering his girlfriend and violating probation.

According to a complaint filed with the lawsuit, Parks was talking with his girlfriend in the jail’s visiting room when deputies beat him and slammed his face into a glass wall. The complain contends that the beating was unjustified because Parks was handcuffed at the time.

Parks said deputies attacked him after he punched a window in frustration at being separated from his girlfriend. He said deputies slammed his head into the glass at least seven times.

In the lawsuit, Parks said he suffered partial loss of hearing after the beating and a loss of feeling in his wrists because deputies handcuffed him too tightly.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said after the alleged attack that Parks was restrained after he created a disturbance in the visiting area, throwing a telephone receiver and inciting other inmates.

An attorney for the Sheriff’s Department said Parks’ injuries in jail were “self-inflicted.” Parks banged his head against a wall, attorney Rick Pinckard said.

“I’m not a psychologist, but I would say Mr. Parks most likely has a death wish arising out of his guilt for getting away with murder,” Pinckard said. “This is really a sad situation, a tragedy all the way around.”

Parks’ complaint contends that deputies terrorized him for the rest of his stay at the jail, “intentionally waging a war of hostile treatment, improper segregation and cruel and unusual punishment.”

Deputies locked Parks in his cell indefinitely, gave him “unsanitary and inedible” food and intermittently videotaped his movements, according to the complaint.