Duffy Defends Conduct of Jail Deputies

Disputing recent allegations that deputies have used excessive force in county jails, San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy Wednesday strongly defended his deputies’ behavior during a closed meeting with the Board of Supervisors. He later dismissed the mistreatment charges as exaggerations and outright lies.

During a nearly two-hour closed session requested by the supervisors, Duffy and County Counsel Lloyd Harmon detailed some of the 40 incidents in which inmates have alleged in formal claims that they were assaulted by sheriff’s deputies. The allegations include charges that inmates, many of whom were arrested on misdemeanor charges, were stripped, beaten, chained in padded cells, or held naked in jails.

No action was taken in the meeting, which Supervisor Susan Golding described as simply “a transfer of information” and which Duffy emphasized was “not a hearing of any type.”

Although the supervisors have no direct jurisdiction over the internal operation of Duffy’s department, they exercise budgetary authority over it as well as oversee litigation and possible damage awards dealing with the complaints of violence in the jails.

Satisfying Concerns

“I’m concerned any time the public thinks something is happening that shouldn’t happen,” Golding said, explaining the genesis of Wednesday’s meeting. “The Board of Supervisors does not tell the sheriff how to run the jails. But . . . within the extent of our authority, we wanted to satisfy our . . . concern about what was valid and what wasn’t valid, and whether or not there really is anything to worry about what’s going on.”

After the closed session, Duffy argued that the allegations stem from inmates’ “biased view” and have painted a distorted picture of what occurs in the county’s six jails. In some cases, news accounts of the allegations have been one-sided, Duffy said, adding that other publicized complaints from former inmates who claim that they were abused by deputies are simply untrue.

“These people, you have to remember, were arrested for violating the law,” Duffy said. “And sometimes they were on drugs or alcohol or combative. The stories . . . make it seem like they’re all nice citizens who went to jail and got beat up. That’s an unfair characterization.”

Duffy promised to hold a news conference next week to more fully “air . . . out” the controversy over the excessive-force allegations.

Several supervisors, meanwhile, also expressed confidence in Duffy and his department Wednesday, though they admitted that the numerous allegations that have surfaced over the past month have spotlighted problems that exist in the badly overcrowded county jail system.

Scope of Talk Limited

“Do I believe that occasionally an (excessive force) incident may occur? Yes,” Golding said. “I think any time you have severe overcrowding in a jail facility, an occasional incident may happen. Should we tolerate it? No. But do I think there’s a massive streak of violence in the jail from what I heard today? No.”

Board Chairman George Bailey added: “My confidence in the sheriff has not been shaken in any way. I feel he’s doing an excellent job considering the immensity of his task right now.”

The supervisors emphasized that, because of open-meeting laws, the scope of Wednesday’s closed session was limited to a discussion of the facts surrounding legal claims filed against the county as a result of the excessive-force allegations.

“We could not discuss, for example, several of the better publicized (cases) that have been talked about in the newspapers because there have been no claims or complaints filed in those instances,” Golding explained.

In his comments after the closed meeting, Duffy stressed that he has never tolerated excessive force by deputies, saying that deputies have been suspended and fired because of their violent behavior in the past. But over the past five years, Duffy noted, there have been only two cases in which the county paid damages, totaling $16,000, as a result of excessive-force complaints.

Denying allegations that deputies have sometimes illegally strip-searched people arrested on minor charges and left them nude in cells for hours, Duffy said that strip searches are used only to prevent combative inmates from harming themselves and others. Particularly violent inmates may have their clothing removed and be chained in safety cells, Duffy added.

However, the sheriff said that he was unaware of any instances in which strip searches were used by deputies as a disciplinary method.

“Were it to be used as a disciplinary matter, then action would be taken (against the deputies involved),” Duffy said. “It’s not authorized and they all know that.”

But Duffy acknowledged that inmates probably have a different perspective of the strip searches.

“You will never get those people to think it’s a pleasant experience,” Duffy said. “Whether or not it was legally justifiable and appropriate under the circumstances is entirely another matter.”

Similarly, Bailey said that the closed meeting convinced him that “in the vast majority of cases, the claim of unnecessary violence is not necessarily a claim which can be justified in court.”

“I think basically what it shows is those claims . . . are in most cases backed up by proper action in the jails,” Bailey added.

The claims that male and female inmates have been abused by deputies at the downtown, Vista, Las Colinas and El Cajon jails currently are being investigated by the Sheriff’s Department’s internal affairs division. The U.S. attorney’s office also is conducting a separate investigation into the allegations, and the FBI is pursuing claims of civil rights violations in the jails.

FBI agents have estimated that their investigation will be completed in about one month.