Sheriff’s deputy charged with assaulting third jail inmate
A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy already accused of assaulting two inmates and lying about the incidents in later reports also assaulted a third inmate, prosecutors alleged in new charges filed Thursday.
Jermaine W. Jackson, a five-year veteran of the department when charges were originally filed in December 2012, is now charged with three counts of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, three counts of assault by a public officer and three counts of filing a false report.
Jackson’s arrest was the first to come after the FBI began investigating deputy misconduct within the Los Angeles County jail system, the largest in the nation. Federal authorities later indicted 18 current and former members of the Sheriff’s Department. A month later, Sheriff Lee Baca announced his resignation effective at the end of this month.
Jackson’s arrest resulted from an internal sheriff’s investigation. The 36-year-old is alleged to have kicked and bloodied up inmate Derek Griscavage on Christmas Day 2010 at Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles. Griscavage said in a sworn statement that he suffered a broken nose, black eyes, a cut to his ear, a swollen head and a chipped tooth.
On New Year’s Eve in 2009, he allegedly assaulted Cesar Campana, an inmate at the Compton courthouse lockup.
Prosecutors now allege that Jackson was involved in a third assault in June 2011, naming Jonathan Murray as the victim. Murray was 25 years old at the time of the incident, which occurred at Twin Towers jail.
On Thursday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Roberto Longoria granted prosecutors’ request to merge Jackson’s case with that of two other deputies, Karin Ann Cring, 31, and Jayson Daniel Ellis, 26.
Prosecutors said they made up a story that the Griscavage was seen passing contraband and that’s why he was searched.
Cring, who had previously resigned and moved to Switzerland, is charged with filing a false report in connection to the Christmas Day incident. Ellis is charged with assault in the same case. Cring and Ellis were arrested last August and released on $20,000 bail last August. Jackson was released on $100,000 bail.
A date has yet to be set for a preliminary hearing, when a judge would decide whether the three suspects must stand trial.
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