Gates Ruled in Contempt; Fined $3,200

A federal judge Thursday held Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates in contempt of court and ordered him to pay $3,200--including $1,100 to a convicted killer--for violating a 1978 court order requiring improvements in living conditions at the men’s jail.

The ruling issued Thursday stemmed from a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of all former and current inmates at the jail. U.S. District Judge William P. Gray agreed with the prisoners that Gates and his staff had violated court orders requiring that inmates have access to legal materials, books, magazines, hot meals and adequate recreational time, among other things.

Cites Need for Improvement

The judge also wrote that limits on the number of letters and photographs inmates may keep in their cells need improvement, but he declined to rule on that issue. Gray also declined to rule on the type of food served to inmates put in “administrative segregation” for causing trouble.

While Gray held Gates in contempt of court on several points, he wrote: “The court believes that within the past two years the sheriff and his staff have been trying actively to improve conditions and practices at the jail and to operate in harmony with the orders of this court.”

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said he could not comment on the ruling because Gates had not seen it. Deputy County Counsel Edward N. Duran was unavailable for comment.

Gray also ordered the county to pay all the legal fees of Stephen S. Buckley, a Mission Viejo attorney who represented the prisoners. Buckley said that his bill totals “thousands of dollars” but that he could not provide an exact figure.

County attorneys have said the county would pay the bill.

Last year, Gray fined the county $50,000 for failing to ease overcrowding at the jail. On Thursday, Gray ordered Gates to pay $2,100 to the court and $1,100 in damages to Philip Angel Senteno, a former jail inmate who filed the suit against Gates claiming his constitutional rights were violated when he was a prisoner in 1982.

Senteno is serving a prison sentence for murder at the state prison in Soledad. Senteno, whom Gray described as a “troublemaker,” was frequently denied access to recreational facilities and was served cold food, according to court testimony.

“Basic human decency requires that a person that is incarcerated in a jail for a substantial period of time be allowed regular periods of outdoor exercise,” Gray wrote in his ruling. “This is true with respect to men in administrative segregation, even chronic troublemakers.”

Buckley said he believes that it is the first time a sheriff has been ordered to pay damages to an inmate.

“It’s been a struggle since 1982,” Buckley said in a telephone interview. “He (Gray) found in our favor on every issue we raised.”

Buckley said he took the case because he “strongly believes in the dignity of the individual.”

Not ‘White Lilies’

“Conditions have to be pretty bad before these guys complain,” Buckley said. The prisoners he represents are not “white lilies,” he said, but “guys who know how to do time.”

Gray fined Gates $1,000 for failing to provide prisoners copies of modified rules and regulations. He ordered Gates to pay a $100 fine for failing to install pay telephones ordered by the court. Instead of installing pay phones, jail officials installed 16 phones for collect calls only.

For failing to allow inmates to receive books and magazines through the mail, Gray fined Gates $1,000 and ordered him to change policies.

“The opportunity to read or study printed material of their own selection is of great importance to many inmates that are incarcerated for substantial periods of time,” Gray wrote. “There can be no reasonable objection to allowing the wife of a man in jail to bundle up several of his favorite magazines or paperbacks and mail them to him.”

In an interview during a break in the trial last month, the jail commander, Wyatt T. Hart, said books sent to the jail pose a “horrendous” security problem. For denying Senteno access to a day room outside of his cell, Gates was ordered to pay $300 in damages. Gates was also ordered to pay $300 to Senteno for denying the prisoner access to the rooftop exercise area. And Gates was ordered to pay $500 for “violation of the constitutional right of plaintiff Senteno to receive edible food reasonably served.”