Way Cleared to Broaden Jail Brutality Lawsuit

A federal judge ruled Monday that a group of men who say they were beaten by sheriff’s deputies while locked up in the Orange County Jail may pursue claims against the county in the form of a class-action lawsuit.

But U.S. District Judge Harry Hopp’s ruling, in federal court in Los Angeles, carried this condition: Inmate attorney Richard P. Herman must return to court with a satisfactory description of the type of prisoners involved and specifics on their number and the nature of the complaints he intends to allege.

If the case is tried as a class action, it opens the way for the judge to force changes in how the jail is operated.

After the hearing Monday, Herman said he believes the lawsuit should be litigated on behalf of all men who have been incarcerated in Orange County’s main men’s jail since June 1, 1987, and all future inmates.

The lawsuit, Taylor vs. Gates, is part of a 13-year court battle Herman has waged against jail conditions in the county. The latest suit, alleging brutality in the jail, was filed in June, 1987, on behalf of Tony W. Taylor. Four other inmates have since been added to the case as plaintiffs.

But Herman maintained Monday that the issues involved in the Taylor lawsuit extend far beyond the interests of five individuals.

Herman contends that sheriff’s deputies at the main jail pull inmates into elevators and other areas out of view of video cameras and observers to beat them. Sheriff’s officials have denied the allegations. Herman said he wants the lawsuit to include others because all inmates could be subject to such beatings.

Attorneys for the county discounted the importance of Monday’s ruling.

“It really doesn’t change anything,” said Janine Jeffrey of Quinn, Kully & Morrow, a private Los Angeles firm representing the county. “The individual prisoners still have to prove it is county policy to brutalize prisoners, which is against the law anyway.”

Attorneys for the county also said they do not believe Herman will succeed in defining the class of plaintiffs in the lawsuit as broadly as he wants.

In previous lawsuits, Herman has failed in his attempts to include allegations that beatings and excessive force are jail policy that must be changed by court order.

Last July, U.S. District Judge William P. Gray ended a 13-year ACLU class-action lawsuit over jail crowding in Orange County. Herman was a primary player in that lawsuit, which resulted in court orders capping the number of prisoners allowed in the jail and setting standards for the amount of sleep that inmates should be provided.

A consultant’s report by a court-appointed special master that was released in May acknowledged that deputies should use less force with inmates but concluded that brutality was not a problem in the jail.

Herman said Monday that the consultant’s findings should not pose a problem in the current case. “The fact that they could not find brutality then does not mean it is not the case (now),” Herman said.

Times staff writer John Kendall contributed to this article.