State Investigating Suicide at Prison

A team of state corrections investigators has been sent to Corcoran State Prison to look into the Dec. 9 suicide of inmate Michael van Straaten, who was left hanging in his cell for 18 minutes while officers remained outside.

The team is trying to determine if Van Straaten was moving at the time officers discovered him dangling at the end of a noose made of a torn bedsheet and shoelaces, according to top corrections officials.

They are also looking at why an emergency alarm--which would have brought a more immediate response--was not sounded and why officers videotaped the scene before cutting the noose.

“It’s reason for alarm any time you lose an inmate like this,” said Richard Ehle, head of the internal affairs unit of the Department of Corrections.

The suicide at Corcoran, a prison that has been the subject of several brutality investigations, is drawing the interest of the FBI and the state attorney general’s office.

A spokesman for Atty. Gen.-elect Bill Lockyer said he is eager to find out the results of a probe by local prosecutors in Kings County into Van Straaten’s death.

“We’re definitely more than interested in this,” said Steve Coony, a Lockyer aide. “We want behavior to change in the Department of Corrections, not just at Corcoran.”

Van Straaten, 32, a Canadian citizen, was found shortly after 3 a.m. But rather than pop open his cell door and determine if he was dead or alive, prison guards remained outside for 18 minutes while his body dangled, according to a confidential prison report obtained by The Times.

Last week, Corrections Director Cal Terhune said he was bothered by the 18-minute lapse and the fact that the officers broke policy by not sounding an emergency alarm that would have summoned dozens of officers.

He confirmed that Van Straaten was pronounced dead--nearly 20 minutes after his discovery--by a physician who did not attempt to revive him.

Van Straaten, also known as Mike Lewis, struggled with HIV and epilepsy. He was serving a life sentence for kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. Prison rights advocates had fought for two years to get Van Straaten transferred to a medical facility that could better treat his condition.

On Wednesday, Terhune said his investigators are “looking at the 18-minute issue . . . [and] if there was movement” by Van Straaten.

There have been several secondhand reports of movement. One officer who requested anonymity said he was told a medical technician and another officer reported seeing Van Straaten move and they pleaded with superiors to open the cell, but they were overruled. The Kings County coroner also said he had heard reports that officers had seen movement.

Corey Weinstein, a physician with California Prison Focus, said inmates told him that they heard Van Straaten gagging and they yelled for help. They told Weinstein that the first two staff members to arrive at the cell “actually yelled at him to come down, to stop his suicide.”

Ehle said his investigators have talked to the state attorney general and the FBI three or four times. The FBI has been conducting a civil rights probe at Corcoran for four years, and earlier this year a federal grand jury indicted eight guards in the shooting death of inmate Preston Tate.

James Maddock, agent in charge of the FBI office in Sacramento, said he has told his supervisor in Fresno to contact the Corrections Department’s internal affairs unit and monitor its investigation. “If it appears they are handling it adequately then we won’t open an investigation,” Maddock said. “But if there’s inadequate state action, we would open an investigation.”

Rob Stutzman, spokesman for Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, said his office is gathering facts about Van Straaten’s suicide and working with Kings County officials.

A spokesman for Kings County Dist. Atty. Greg Strickland was unavailable for comment.

Coony said incoming Atty. Gen. Lockyer will want to review Kings County’s findings.

“This is not something we’ll ignore,” Coony said. “It certainly won’t take four years for the attorney general to come to a conclusion on this.”