Duffy Report Says Deputies Did Not Beat Jail Inmates

Ten sheriff’s deputies used “deliberate and cruel harassment . . . to establish control and to show the inmates who’s running” the County Jail in El Cajon, but the so-called “Rambo squads” did not beat prisoners, according to a report released Tuesday by Sheriff John Duffy.

Duffy declined to identify the deputies in the report, released to the San Diego County Grand Jury. A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said that “more than one” deputy has been fired at the El Cajon jail.

The other deputies, including some supervisors, face disciplinary actions ranging from termination to one-week suspensions in connection with “inexcusable, unprofessional and embarrassing” conduct at the jail during 1987 and 1988.

At Odds With Jury Report

Critics described Duffy’s report as being at odds with a harsh, March 21 grand jury report that described the seemingly routine use of undue physical force by certain deputies working the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift at the overcrowded El Cajon complex. In contrast, Duffy said his “comprehensive” investigation uncovered no evidence of “excessive use of physical force.”

Duffy’s report was “an attempt to minimize the significance of the abuses that the grand jury found,” American Civil Liberties Union Legal Director Betty Wheeler said Tuesday. “The sheriff says pretty clearly that there’s no evidence of physical abuse, which flies in the face of the grand jury’s findings.”

Michael Crowley, an attorney who represents former inmate Jim Butler, who alleges he was beaten in 1985, said: “Once again, Sheriff Duffy has read the black and white of the grand jury report with his own particular rose-colored glasses and blinders. The grand jury definitely documented excessive force and beatings in the jail.

‘Excessive Force and Beatings’

“It was clear, and it continues to be documented, that there is excessive force and beatings in the jail,” said Crowley, who called for Duffy to release the names of the deputy or deputies who have been fired.

“There’s no question that (Butler) was beaten up,” Crowley said. “There is eyewitness testimony, and the pictures don’t lie.”

Butler’s case is scheduled to go to trial in November in Superior Court.

Wheeler questioned Duffy’s decision to focus his department’s internal investigation solely on the El Cajon site when the grand jury found evidence of a countywide problem. She was also “concerned that the sheriff believes that grand jury report did not uncover any evidence of excessive use of physical force.”

Wheeler on Tuesday repeated an earlier demand for an independent body to review treatment of inmates in the county jails.

“Ultimately, the only thing that can give the public needed assurances is to have an independent mechanism for compliance and review,” she said. “Until we see that, it’s going to be difficult to have real high confidence in the county jails.”

Duffy’s report does not address the grand jury’s finding that illegal inmate treatment practices were “a reflection of the philosophy of the sheriff,” Wheeler said. “It’s not clear that there’s been a turnaround in the style and philosophy of the sheriff.”

Crowley added: “We have contended all along that a lack of leadership and supervision is the problem--that coupled with poor recruiting and training.”

Armistead B. Smith Jr., foreman of the grand jury that wrote the March 21 report, said he had not yet seen the sheriff’s report.

The jury reported that the use of excessive force was partially hidden by internal cover-ups and that top jail administrators fostered an environment that allowed deputies to “delight in cruelty to others.”

More Than 100 Interviews

Sheriff’s investigators who conducted more than 100 interviews with department personnel found that deputies, “including supervisors and management personnel,” had violated regulations governing the treatment of inmates. One deputy was found to have violated regulations governing “truthfulness.”

Deputies questioned were “cooperative and some were even anxious to provide information,” according to Duffy.

His report acknowledges that the deputies who have been disciplined had engaged in “cell trashing under the guise of cell searches” and “what simply amounts to deliberate and cruel harassment of inmates.”

His report also acknowledges the use a form of punishment known as “wall leaning,” which he described as a “deliberate and cruel harassment of prisoners.” The punishment requires inmates to stand with their feet apart and their hands against the wall for long periods.

The grand jury, in describing the punishment, said that some deputies responded with “physical force” when exhausted inmates were unable to remain in the highly uncomfortable position. Duffy, in contrast, did not find that deputies used physical force when inmates failed to remain in the required position.

Stood by Story

Stories about alleged beatings at the El Cajon jail began surfacing in early 1988. One of the first prisoners to allege the use of excessive force by deputies was Orned (Chicken) Gabriel, who filed a formal complaint in May, 1988.

Duffy at the time argued that Gabriel and several other inmates “deliberately contrived” the beatings stories for publicity. Gabriel subsequently stood by his story that seven deputies handcuffed him and dropped him face-first to the floor, punched and kicked him, and then rammed him head-first into a jail door.

Duffy’s four-page report links the supervision problem at the El Cajon jail to a shortage of funds that has kept him from hiring six new employees who would run an inspections and control division.

Duffy said the 1989-90 county budget includes funding for a “Standards Compliance Manager” who will monitor treatment of inmates. But Duffy acknowledged that it would be impossible for a single manager to conduct the in-depth inspections and compliance program called for by the grand jury.

San Diego remains “the largest law enforcement organization in the country without an inspections and control division to maintain quality control in . . . (its) several jails,” Duffy said in the report.