Inmate’s Death After Fight With Deputies Probed

Faced with sharply conflicting accounts, the Sheriff’s Department is investigating the death of an inmate in the mental health wing of the Twin Towers Correctional Facility after a struggle with deputies that they said the inmate provoked but that critics called a vicious beating.

A Wednesday news release from sheriff’s headquarters said inmate Danny Smith, 34, was being moved to a medical ward at 6:50 p.m. Saturday. When his handcuffs were removed, he attacked the escorting deputy, the release said.

As several deputies struggled to regain control of Smith, he collapsed and was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation, before being sent to County-USC Medical Center, where he died, according to the release.

Undersheriff Jerry Harper said the department was taking the first steps in an investigation of whether there was any criminal conduct or civil liability in the incident.

“There was definitely a confrontation between the inmate and deputies, but I’m not prepared to say how much force was used until we conduct the investigation,” Harper said. “It’s in everyone’s interest to withhold judgment until we get the results of the autopsy.”

Sandra Moore, an advisor to the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality in California, said 20 inmates and others witnessed the altercation. She said eight inmates told her that the trouble started when Smith, who was black, balked at being put in a cell with a Latino inmate.

None of the eight inmates was immediately available for comment.

Moore said Smith had asked to be placed with someone of his own ethnicity--a common practice at Los Angeles County jails, where inmate strife often breaks down along racial lines.

Moore said inmates told her that three sheriff’s deputies and a County Jail worker--whom they identified--were irritated by his resistance. Without removing his handcuffs, they began to beat him with their fists and a flashlight, referring to him by a racial slur at least twice, Moore said inmates told her.

She said Smith yelled for the deputies to stop beating him, shouting that they were killing him.

On Monday, Moore said one of the deputies involved was reportedly back on duty in the cellblock. She said potential witnesses told her they were intimidated and frightened.

“The level of intimidation is scorchingly high if you’re locked in there,” said Celes King III, the state chairman of CORE.

King called for a thorough investigation by an independent outside agency.

“The problem with the sheriff doing it is the credibility may be dampened before it gets going,” he said. “I’m not pointing an accusing finger, but I am saying the process needs to be changed.”

Paul Hoffman, an attorney who monitors prison conditions for the American Civil Liberties Union, echoed the recommendation.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense for law enforcement to investigate itself,” he said. “Based on what the inmates said, there’s certainly reason to believe that some action should be taken against the deputies. But only a thorough investigation can determine that.”

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It was not possible to get details on Smith’s medical condition when he arrived at County-USC. Hospital spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda said that only the Sheriff’s Department was authorized to provide information on patients brought in under its custody.

Scott Carrier, spokesman for the county coroner’s office, said Smith’s body had not yet been examined.

In March 1997, a panel of medical exports retained by the U.S. Department of Justice issued a blistering report on the treatment of mentally ill inmates in Los Angeles County jails. The report concluded that mental patients behind bars often were subjected to verbal and even physical abuse by other inmates. Conditions in the mental health ward also were faulted, but deputies were not accused of beating inmates.

Smith, arrested June 16 on suspicion of being a convicted narcotics addict in possession of a firearm, was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, the Sheriff’s Department news release said.

It did not explain why he was placed in the mental housing area of Twin Towers.