The Los Angeles County district attorney’s
office has quietly filed assault charges against three sheriff’s
deputies accused of punching and kicking a jail inmate after he was
disrespectful to a guard, according to court records.
Prosecutors
have built their case around a sheriff’s deputy who told investigators
he witnessed the beating and later met with other deputies to discuss
how to cover it up, the records show.
The charges mark a rare
criminal filing against deputies working in the jails: It is the third
excessive-force prosecution of jail deputies in a decade, according to
law enforcement records and interviews. Inmates frequently allege that
deputies have used excessive force, but law enforcement officials say
such cases are difficult to prove or prosecute.
Inmate Gabriel
Vasquez had a fractured cheekbone and injuries to his left ear, rib
cage and face in the January 2006 incident. Sheriff’s investigators
initially discounted his claim that deputies caused the injuries,
concluding that they were either self-inflicted or caused by other
inmates, according to court records.
–Jack Leonard