Lawmen Face Trial in Inmate’s Beating : Brutality: Two Orange County sheriff’s deputies and an ex-Maywood officer were bound over to Superior Court.

Two Orange County sheriff’s deputies and a former Maywood police officer were ordered Thursday to stand trial in Superior Court on charges they beat a Maywood jail inmate unconscious after attending a bachelor party.

At a preliminary hearing, Municipal Judge Elva Soper ruled that there was enough evidence of a crime to try Deputies Ivan Budiselich, 26, John Rice, 25, and former Maywood Officer Michael A. Elliott, 31, on six felony charges.

All three are accused of beating and threatening to hang Marino D. Martillo of Huntington Park in March while Martillo was in jail on traffic warrants. The incident, prosecutors said, occurred shortly after the officers became intoxicated at a colleague’s bachelor party and went to the Maywood police station in a chauffeur-driven limousine.

Each faces one count of “assault under color of authority” and one count of assault and battery with serious bodily injury. Also filed were additional special allegations of great bodily injury. They face a maximum penalty of four years in prison if convicted.

During several hours on the witness stand, Martillo identified Elliott, Budiselich and Rice as his attackers. Budiselich, he said, appeared to lead the beating, which lasted several minutes in a jail cell.

Testimony showed that the officers showed up at the department about 2 a.m. on March 23 to visit friends and play with a Breathalyzer, which is used to determine if someone is legally drunk.

According to the district attorney, Elliott, Rice and Budiselich had been out drinking and celebrating with a second Maywood officer, Daniel Vasquez, who was getting married the next day.

The three men were at the station the night in question and appeared to be having a good time, Maywood Officer John Hoglund told the court. He said he told them about an inmate with whom he had had an altercation earlier that evening. He said he did not know if the officers were drunk.

A police dispatcher also testified that Elliott, Rice and Budiselich were at the station and entered the cell area. She said she later checked a jail video monitor and saw Elliott slapping Martillo with an open hand.

The dispatcher told the court that she finally ordered the three men out of the cellblock because she could get in trouble.

The defendants, prosecutors charge, posed as district attorney investigators, entered the jail area and singled out Martillo on the mistaken belief that he was the prisoner involved in the earlier altercation with Hoglund.

The victim’s doctor and a physician hired by the district attorney’s office have concluded that Martillo, 30, suffered blurred vision, hearing loss and dizziness as a result of the alleged attack.

Meanwhile, Rice and Budiselich have filed claims for damages against the Maywood Police Department alleging that the city’s jail procedures were inadequate and that the dispatcher should have never allowed them into the cell block. The city has denied any wrongdoing.