Henley Faked Suicide Try in Jail, Officials Say

Former Ram football player and convicted cocaine trafficker Darryl Henley faked a suicide attempt in jail after learning that he faced two more drug trafficking charges and allegations that he plotted the assassination of a federal judge, according to the U.S. marshal’s office.

Guards at the San Bernardino County Jail, where Henley was moved two weeks ago, found him on the floor of his cell with a makeshift rope, fashioned out of pieces of clothing, tied around his neck as if he had tried to hang himself, according to Deputy U.S. Marshal Gilbert Garcia.

Garcia said San Bernardino jail officials offered to take Henley to a local hospital for a medical checkup and observation, but Henley declined the offer. Garcia said Henley apparently suffered no injuries.

Jail guards speculated that Henley faked the suicide attempt so that he would be transferred from the small individual cell where he is being held to the cells occupied by the general jail population.

In an interview at the jail this week, Henley acknowledged that there had been an “incident” in his cell shortly after he was transferred here May 23 from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.

But the former Ram cornerback brushed aside questions about the incident and would only say that “at some point, everyone will know what really has happened” to him.

Henley’s attorney, David Reed of Beverly Hills, also declined to answer questions Tuesday about the supposed suicide attempt, saying only that “Darryl is very . . . upset concerning the government’s continuing efforts to inculpate him in additional serious charges.”

Reed said his client denies all of the government’s allegations against him.

The supposed suicide attempt occurred May 25. Henley was moved to the San Bernardino jail from the Los Angeles detention center May 23 after federal authorities made public charges that Henley had used a cellular phone provided by a guard to try to arrange a $1-million heroin deal.

Prosecutors contend that Henley and the guard, Rodney Anderson, planned to use $200,000 from the heroin sale to pay for the contract killings of U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor, who presided over Henley’s 1995 cocaine trafficking trial, and former Ram cheerleader Tracy Donaho, who was caught ferrying drugs for Henley and testified against him.

Two days after unveiling details involving the heroin deal, federal prosecutors unsealed a second complaint charging Henley, a former girlfriend, the mother of his child, and his younger brother, Eric, with attempting to sell 25 kilograms of cocaine.

Both drug deals were sting operations conducted by FBI and DEA agents.

Prosecutors have until next Tuesday to secure a grand jury indictment against Henley and the others charged in the new complaint.

Henley could face a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole if charged by the government with plotting to murder a federal judge and convicted.

This week, a member of Henley’s defense team, Juliette Robinson-Slaton of Long Beach, withdrew from the case.

It is still unknown whether Taylor, who is scheduled to sentence Henley for the 1995 conviction, will recuse himself from the case.

Robinson-Slaton did not state any reasons for her withdrawal, but Taylor approved the request nonetheless.

* Times staff writer T.J. Simers contributed to this report.