Duffy Lashes Back at Accusers, Denies Systematic Jail Beatings

Sheriff John Duffy strongly denied Tuesday that San Diego County jail inmates are being “systematically beaten” by his deputies and instead said allegations of excessive force have been sustained against only 20 of his deputies in the last five years.

In a two-hour press conference, Duffy for the first time formally addressed mounting accusations that inmates, many of them arrested for misdemeanor offenses such as drunken driving, were stripped, chained and beaten at county detention facilities run by his department.

Although 92 claims of excessive force have been filed by inmates since 1983, the sheriff said, that number pales beside the fact that 668,345 inmates have been booked during that period.

“That computes to 0.00014 of a percent,” he said. “It is 14 ten-thousandths of a percent. That is hardly systematic brutality.”

Duffy said four deputy sheriffs were disciplined after inmates filed claims of abuse against the county. One deputy was prosecuted but later acquitted, one has resigned and is being prosecuted, and the other two were suspended without pay, Duffy said.

Disciplinary Action Taken

He said 16 more deputies were disciplined after fellow deputies told jail supervisors that they saw their colleagues assault inmates.

But he sharply lambasted the credibility of many of the former inmates who now are saying they were assaulted by deputies.

Without revealing names, Duffy said one woman who alleged she was embarrassed at being strip-searched and left naked in an isolation cell is a nude dancer who “takes her clothes off every single night for money.”

He described another former inmate as a “certified psycho who was committed to a state hospital.”

Duffy said he also fully expects the continuing investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office to conclude that the charges of abuse are unsubstantiated.

Concerned About Effect

But he is concerned about what effect the publicity surrounding the alleged beatings is having on the voting public, which in two weeks will decide whether to increase the sales tax to provide new space to ease jail crowding.

“I’ve got the toughest hide, tougher than a rhinoceros in terms of allegations against me personally,” he said. “But what I really worry about is what kind of perceptions the voters are drawing from this day after day after day after day.

“This issue has got to pass, and if this perception puts a roadblock in the way, we’re in a whole lot of trouble here.”

Duffy said he has never hesitated to mete out punishment if allegations are proven.

Warning to Graduates

He said he meets with every graduate from the sheriff’s academy and warns them against using excessive force in the jail.

“I personally tell them this: ‘If you get mad and bring your temper to work with you and haul off and (injure) a prisoner in the jail, then you can expect me to try to prosecute you. And, if I can’t do that, I’ll fire you. And I’ll at least discipline you.’

He gave sketchy descriptions of the four claims filed by inmates since Jan. 1, 1983, that have resulted in deputies being disciplined.

Ronald C. James received $15,000 from the county after he was beaten and lost a tooth during an altercation in May, 1986, with Deputy James Armand in the downtown jail.

“We thought it was excessive force to the degree that it constituted a criminal offense,” Duffy said. “The deputy was acquitted by a jury, found innocent, and, guess what I did? I suspended him five days without pay because he did not meet our standards.”

2nd Inmate Settled Claim

He added that Armand’s jail supervisor originally had recommended that the deputy be suspended for four weeks. (Although Duffy refused to identify Armand by name, this case was the subject of a story in The Times on May 16.)

A second inmate settled his claim for $1,000 when he alleged that he was injured in August, 1983, after refusing to identify himself to a deputy.

“So the deputy sheriff decided he was going to get the inmate’s name by applying a wristlock through the bars and forcing him to tell his name,” Duffy said. “And we thought that was excessive force. And we suspended that deputy for five days.”

In a third case, an inmate was injured in December when he was removed from a stairwell.

“He was physically restrained in a manner which indicates the deputy used excessive force without provocation or justification,” Duffy said. He said the deputy resigned to avoid being fired and that criminal charges have since been filed against him. He added that he has recommended that the county settle the inmate’s claim.

Denied Medication

A fourth inmate was denied his medication by a deputy in an altercation in September, 1983, that led to the deputy’s receiving a two-day suspension.

Duffy said that the inmate had been allowed to keep his own medication but that the deputy forcibly removed it.

Duffy harshly criticized the more than two dozen people who have alleged in the press in recent weeks that they were beaten by deputies, stripped naked, strip-searched and shackled.

“These 24 people wouldn’t make a good two juries,” the sheriff said. “They are not exactly what they have, in a self-serving way, painted themselves.”

He said many of them were arrested for drunken driving or drug offenses and that, once in jail, they turned violent.

‘Known as Total Lushes’

“They’re commonly known as total lushes who pass out in their front lawns,” he said. “They can’t even control themselves in their own neighborhood. And you expect them to come to jail and control themselves and be nice upstanding citizens?”

Betty Wheeler, legal director for the local American Civil Liberties Union, defended many of those former inmates.

“It seems to me the sheriff went to great lengths to comment about the character flaws of the people who came forward to complain,” she said in an interview after Duffy’s press conference.

“If you look at the people who are coming forward, the question is why would they come forward and subject themselves to that kind of smear campaign if what they were saying were not true?”

Duffy attacked the credibility of several of the former inmates.

“One of them is a certified psycho who was committed to a state hospital,” he said. “For about 20 years he has been ranging in mood from adulations for the Sheriff’s Department and John Duffy to absolute hatred.”

A Nude Dancer Downtown

He scoffed at a woman who said she was embarrassed because her clothes were removed.

“She is a nude dancer in a downtown bar and takes her clothes off every single night for money,” Duffy said. “She has a long record for drugs and burglary and has been arrested since this time while dancing nude and tested positive for being under the influence of methamphetamines.”

He said another inmate alleged that a deputy hit him on the head with a flashlight in August, 1985.

“He saw the jail doctor 131 times and never once complained of a head injury,” Duffy said. “He never once complained he was hit on the head with a flashlight until about a month after he was released and then he filed a claim with the county.”

The sheriff criticized Jim Butler, who alleges that deputies dislocated his shoulder in the Vista jail and has encouraged other beaten inmates to step forward. He noted that Butler has filed a lawsuit against the county in federal court.

‘Old Boys’ System at Work’

Butler, interviewed later, said: “This is just another indication of the old boys’ system at work in San Diego. And, even if some people are from the lower side of life, that doesn’t mean they should be beaten and abused.”

The sheriff also blasted a former Las Colinas inmate who has said two women inmates may have been murdered by deputies, rather than being suicide victims as announced by the Sheriff’s Department.

He said the inmate has been arrested often for drunk driving. “She obviously is symptomatic of real acute alcoholism,” Duffy said. “She has a long record for alcohol-related offenses.”

The woman, Nita Van Heest of Vista, acknowledged in an interview Tuesday that she once had a drinking problem, brought on by her father’s death and her daughter’s suicide.

“My problems with alcohol were emotionally induced,” she said. “But it’s not I who stand alleged of beating people and holding public office and telling lies.”

Chained in Isolation Rooms

Other female inmates have said that they were needlessly stripped and chained in isolation “rubber rooms” at the jails, primarily Vista.

But Duffy said inmates are sometimes stripped for their own protection. He cited a case in which, he said, an inmate tore the lining out of his underwear, hooked it over a ceiling vent and hanged himself.

Duffy also chastised some unidentified jail deputies for saying in the press that some of their colleagues have used excessive force. He said those deputies have a duty to report such misconduct to their jail supervisors, not the media.

“I don’t have any use for, in fact I’m ashamed of, this individual who appeared on Channel 39 in the shadows, like some kind of Deep Throat,” Duffy said.

“That’s so stupid, I can’t believe it. If that jackass has any information and he’s really a deputy, he’s got an obligation to his fellow deputies to come forward and fulfill his oath of office.”

CLAIMS ALLEGING USE OF FORCE AT S.D. COUNTY JAILS Systemwide bookings 668,345 Total claims (use of force) 92 Actual number of incidents giving rise to those claims 81 Claims resulting in payment settlements 2 Complaints sustained 4 Complaints resulting in discipline 4 SOURCE: San Diego County Sheriff’s Department