THE TROUBLED L.A. COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT : Inmate’s Death Raises Questions About Deputies’ Conduct : Law enforcement: Other prisoners say they saw deputies beat him before shooting him with an electronic Taser gun. Officials say the man was violent and under the influence of drugs.

Two inmates at the Men’s Central Jail this weekend said that deputies severely beat another inmate, James Ricard, just before Ricard was shot twice with a Taser electronic dart gun and subsequently died.

Ricard, 32, was described by a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman as a transient who used many aliases. On Sunday, officials said Ricard became violent and a deputy used the Taser gun to subdue him. He died a short time later.

The death came only a day before the release of a harshly critical report on the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the Men’s Jail and 10 other inmate facilities. The report raised concerns about use of excessive force by deputies in county jails.

In a statement read over the phone, a department spokesman said Ricard had told deputies he was under the influence of the drug PCP when he was arrested early Sunday morning on two outstanding warrants and suspicion of vandalism.

After he was taken to the jail near downtown Los Angeles and handcuffed to a bench in a hallway awaiting transportation to a psychiatric ward, according to the statement, Ricard began swinging a chain attached to a wall at deputies and other inmates.

To subdue him, according to the statement, deputies first tried to put additional restraints on him. Then a jail sergeant shot Ricard twice with the Taser gun, which delivers a jolt of electricity with each shot. Ricard stopped breathing a short time later and a jail physician could not revive him. He died an hour later at White Memorial Hospital in Boyle Heights.

But two inmates who called The Times from the jail contend that they saw two deputies beat Ricard severely on his head and upper body with their fists while he was handcuffed and before he was shot with the Taser. One of the deputies, who was described as weighing about 300 pounds, sat on Ricard during the alleged beating, the callers said.

One caller, who identified himself as Allan Davidson, contacted The Times on Sunday, before news of Ricard’s death was public. The second caller, who identified himself as Ronald Simon, called Monday. A jail operator confirmed that Simon and Davidson are inmates at the jail and confirmed the booking numbers the callers gave to reporters. Both were in custody Sunday.

Bob Dambacher, a spokesman for the county Department of the Coroner, said Monday that it may take as long as three weeks to determine why Ricard died because toxicology tests have to be performed to determine what drugs, if any, he may have consumed. The department would not comment on the specific nature of Ricard’s injuries or indicate whether he was bruised or cut on the upper torso or head.

Simon and Davidson said they were in the hallway waiting to receive medication from the jail infirmary when the incident occurred Sunday. Ricard began yelling at the deputies and refused to stop when ordered to do so, they said.

“I thought they were going to secure him better to the bench or something, but then they started hitting him. (The two deputies) hit him about 20 times,” said Simon. “They struck him to the point where they wore themselves out. It was like they were doing it in rhythm.” After the beating, the deputies placed a bloody--and now chained--Ricard back on the bench, where he began taunting the deputies again and swinging the chain at them, Simon said.

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to know this man was either not in his right mind or was high on something,” Simon said.

At that point, both Davidson and Simon said, as many as 20 deputies converged on Ricard and surrounded him. Simon said he saw a deputy fire the Taser gun at Ricard and smelled something burning. Then he and the other inmates were taken from the scene, he said.

Davidson said that Monday, after his name had appeared in the Times, he was threatened by a deputy. Sheriff’s Department officials referred all calls related to Ricard’s death to the department’s Information Bureau. Officers who answered the phones there would only read the statement.

Last month, the Los Angeles County Grand Jury recommended that the Sheriff’s Department stop using Taser guns and substitute a plastic-bullet device that jury members believed was less likely to cause major injury or death.

Sheriff Sherman Block rejected that recommendation, saying the second device could not be used in close quarters without risking fatal injury.