Judge won’t delay transcripts in jail inmate’s death

An Orange County Superior Court judge today denied a request by the Sheriff’s Department to delay the release of thousands of pages of transcripts from a grand jury investigation into the 2006 slaying of a jail inmate.

Judge James A. Stotler said the Sheriff’s Department had no legal standing to seek the sealing, noting that state law calls for grand jury transcripts to be released except in a case in which a criminal defendant proves they could jeopardize his right to a fair trial.

The Orange County district attorney’s office spent nine months presenting evidence to a special grand jury following the slaying of inmate John Chamberlain at Theo Lacy Jail in Orange.

The judge’s decision does not mean that the transcripts will become available immediately. First, copies will be given to the attorneys for three inmates indicted in Chamberlain’s death, and by law they will become public 10 days after that.

Chamberlain’s family alleged that deputies instigated the beating and failed to intervene despite his cries for help. The family said deputies falsely told other inmates that Chamberlain was in custody on child molestation charges when, in fact, he had been accused of possessing child pornography.

About 20 inmates beat and stomped Chamberlain to death while an on-duty deputy allegedly watched television. This month, the grand jury indicted three inmates in connection with Chamberlain’s death but decided not to charge any sheriff’s employees with criminal misconduct.

Lawyers for the Sheriff’s Department argued today that the transcripts should be temporarily sealed so that they could review them to see if they contained any information that could jeopardize inmate or deputy safety. A lawyer representing The Times and Orange County Register maintained that the sheriff had no standing in the matter and the records should be released.

Senior Deputy County Counsel Laura D. Knapp said the Sheriff’s Department was concerned that witnesses’ and deputies’ lives could be in danger if certain records were released.

“There are hundreds of documents that contain highly confidential information,” Knapp said.

Prosecutors said the sheriff’s requests were overly broad and that some of the information, including witness statements, had already become public during a court hearing for one of the defendants in the case. They said the information that should be reviewed was limited to records that the Sheriff’s Department provided in response to two subpoenas from prosecutors.

“We’re looking at a limited number of documents regarding two subpoenas,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Fitzpatrick. “What in the world are we doing here talking about the transcripts?”

Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson has said his department does not oppose the transcripts’ release but simply wants to make sure nothing in them could create a hazard in county jails.

John McDonald, a sheriff’s spokesman, said, “Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson looks forward to the grand jury records being made public as quickly as possible, without endangering any lives or compromising anybody’s legal protection.”

Anderson has vowed that his department would conduct a thorough investigation and properly discipline any negligent deputies.

The grand jury sent a letter to Anderson this month criticizing the department for failing to bring in the district attorney’s office to investigate Chamberlain’s death and instead handling the initial inquiry internally. The county has a longtime policy in which the district attorney’s office investigates deaths within county jails.

christine.hanley@latimes.com

stuart.pfeifer@latimes.com