Duffy to Reopen Probe of Inmate Abuses at Jail : Investigation: Attorney for Capt. Maudie Bobbitt says action by sheriff is political retaliation.

Sheriff John Duffy said Friday that he is reopening an investigation into allegations that the captain who supervised the so-called “Rambo Squad”--accused of harassing prisoners during 1987 and 1988 at the El Cajon jail--overlooked or ignored charges of inmate abuse.

Duffy took the action after saying he would formally withdraw a previously imposed 35-day suspension without pay against Capt. Maudie Bobbitt, who was in charge of the jail between July, 1986, and February, 1988. The suspension had to be withdrawn for the investigation to begin, Duffy’s attorney said.

If a sheriff’s internal investigation determines that Bobbitt ignored abuse complaints, she “could certainly be facing far more serious disciplinary actions than the suspension,” Duffy said in a prepared statement.

Everett Bobbitt, Maudie’s husband and attorney in this case, said Duffy’s move is political retaliation against him for pursuing legal cases against Duffy and for Bobbitt’s aggressive support of Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Roache, who is running for sheriff next month against Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown, Duffy’s choice as successor.

Duffy announced last year that he was not running for reelection after nearly 20 years in office. Soon after the announcement, Drown announced his intention to run and Duffy endorsed him.

“It’s purely political because Maudie and I supported Roache,” Bobbitt said. “This is Duffy’s way of trying to ensure that Drown wins and retaliating against Maudie. I am angry. This is my home and my family and my wife being used as a political football.”

Bobbitt said Duffy dislikes him for a series of court victories the attorney has won over the years, including one that allowed Roache to run for sheriff. Bobbitt represents rank-and-file sheriff’s deputies, police officers and other officials protected under Civil Service regulations.

He said attorneys for Duffy have told him that they eventually will seek to fire his wife, a charge Duffy’s attorney denies.

The unusual series of events Friday surfaced five days before a hearing at which Maudie Bobbitt was to appeal her November, 1989, suspension and to which Duffy and Drown were subpoenaed.

Although the hearing is still scheduled for Wednesday, it is unclear exactly what matters will be heard. Bobbitt contended that part of Duffy’s strategy in withdrawing his wife’s discipline was to stop the hearing, which is to fall less than two weeks before the election.

Bobbitt and nine other deputies and high-ranking officials were disciplined for their role in the so-called “Rambo Squad,” which the county grand jury concluded engaged in “deliberate and cruel harassment . . . to show the inmates who’s running the jails.”

The report said deputies were guilty of abuse, including an exercise in which inmates had to lean spread-eagled against a wall until they lost muscle control, and having deputies scrape inmates’ faces against a wall.

In addition, the grand jury said, deputies would “delight in cruelty to others” by squashing packets of mustard, catsup and mayonnaise so that the contents would spray into cells and inmates would be forced to clean the mess.

After the report was released in March, 1989, Duffy began his own internal investigation that drew many of the same conclusions.

In August of last year, he promised the grand jury that he would take “specific disciplinary actions” including “termination from employment; demotion in rank; 30-day suspension without pay; 10-day suspension without pay; and five-day suspension without pay.”

The Times reported Wednesday, however, that Duffy reneged on the promise and that nobody received worse than a suspension.

Duffy and his attorney, Martin J. Mayer, said Friday that Everett Bobbitt raised the allegations that his wife ignored or overlooked inmate abuse in a legal document submitted to the county’s Civil Service Commission last week.

In the legal paper, Bobbitt said he wanted his wife’s hearing to include Duffy’s testimony about whether he condoned inmate abuse at the jail. Bobbitt said he has evidence that Duffy ignored numerous reports of inmate abuse.

“If the sheriff condoned or encouraged the mistreatment of San Diego County Jail prisoners and projected this to the commanding officers of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, it would be relevant to how Captain Bobbitt proceeded to investigate allegations of abuse,” Bobbitt wrote.

It is this statement that Duffy and Mayer said raises the question of whether Maudie Bobbitt ignored or overlooked charges of abuse.

“Everett Bobbitt is saying that his wife didn’t do the type of investigation that she should have done because she thought her boss condoned abuse, and so she looked the other way,” Mayer said. “That’s the Nuremberg defense. Looking the other way because you thought you were supposed to is not a defense.”

In his prepared statement, Duffy said Maudie Bobbitt “may well have deliberately refused to investigate allegations of inmate abuse brought to her attention because she perceived that (this oversight) was somehow what was expected of her.”

Bobbitt contends that, although Duffy ignored reports of abuse, his wife conducted numerous investigations.

“Sheriff Duffy is a liar,” he said. “He wouldn’t know the truth if he saw it. My wife recognized that John Duffy was not serious in investigating abuse. I have proof that she did a lot better job.”

Late Friday, Bobbitt said he would file a $10-million lawsuit against Duffy, Drown and Cmdr. Myron Klippert, Maudie Bobbitt’s immediate supervisor, alleging political retaliation, sexual discrimination and the intentional infliction of emotional injury.

Last week, Bobbitt told the Civil Service Commission that his wife was singled out for discipline, although many of her male counterparts, whose jails were also reported to have abuse problems, were not.

Mayer said the internal affairs investigation also would include Bobbitt’s claims of “gender discrimination.” He said it was premature of Bobbitt to file a lawsuit alleging political retaliation or sexual discrimination because the internal affairs investigation has not yet been started.

During this Wednesday’s hearing on Maudie Bobbitt’s appeal of her suspension, Mayer said he will formally withdraw Bobbitt’s 35-day suspension and repay the money she was owed during that time. Everett Bobbitt estimated the amount to be about $8,000.

Mayer said the Sheriff’s Department will then begin the investigation. He said nobody has told Everett Bobbitt that his wife will be fired.

Everett Bobbitt said that, under the legal procedures that govern Civil Service Commission hearings, any investigation of his wife has to end once Duffy rescinds the suspension. He said his wife cannot then be tried on the same charges of overlooking inmate abuse.

But Duffy suggested in his statement that Maudie Bobbitt may face a different charge, one that will determine whether “she engaged in willful and deliberate misconduct.”

Duffy said he had no choice but to reopen his investigation.

“Ever since the original internal affairs investigation was completed, I have been operating on the belief that Capt. Bobbitt merely neglected her duties in a manner which was well below the performance standards expected of a sheriff’s captain,” Duffy said.

“Now, nearly two years later on the eve of her appeal, her attorney/husband publicly says that she may well have deliberately refused to investigate allegations of inmate abuse.”