Probe of Jail Slaying Focuses on Trusties

Los Angeles County sheriff’s homicide investigators confirmed Wednesday that trusties in a crowded holding cell at the Men’s Central Jail were improperly given confidential information detailing the charges against a 20-year-old accused child molester, who was subsequently beaten and strangled by other inmates.

Investigators believe that the trusties--who they believe were given the secret information by deputies--told other inmates that Miguel Sanchez, 20, was being held on child molestation charges, prompting the fatal attack on the accused sex offender on the night of July 11.

Homicide Det. Johnny Brown said investigators are still trying to determine whether the deputies on duty the night Sanchez was killed provided the trusties with the details of the man’s charges in hopes of prompting the beating.

The probe is part of a wide-ranging criminal investigation of the conduct of up to 14 deputies at the Men’s Central Jail suspected of encouraging other inmates to attack accused sex offenders.

The newly disclosed details about the 7-month-old Sanchez case have been corroborated by a former inmate, who said he witnessed the fatal beating. The inmate, whose account was brought to investigators’ attention by The Times, asked that his name not be used.

Homicide investigators said they have met with the former inmate to discuss what he saw. On Wednesday, they said they were trying to determine if he should be considered a credible witness.

According to the former inmate, trusties were holding inmates’ booking cards, on which charges are listed, as prisoners were shuffled into the 9500 module that night.

At the time, more than 300 inmates--charged with a variety of offenses--were mixed together in the large dorm, awaiting transfer to other facilities in the jail system. Under Sheriff’s Department policy, accused sex offenders are supposed to be segregated from other inmates. Officials are trying to determine why that was not done in Sanchez’s case.

Sanchez--who was accused of molesting a relative--was strangled, according to a coroner’s investigation. Investigators also believe that he was beaten by an unknown number of inmates over a period of hours. There have been no arrests in the case.

Attorneys for Sanchez’s family say that they are preparing to file a wrongful death suit.

“Our client was charged with sexual offenses,” said civil attorney Richard Koskoff. “These charges circulated around the jail. [The deputies] failed to segregate him. My client lost his life as a result of the sheriff’s inaction.”

The witness--who says that he was in the same cell as Sanchez--said he noticed four to six men, some of whom bore 18th Street gang tattoos, beating another inmate about 11 p.m.

Although the witness alleges that he saw the silhouettes of two deputies in a glassed-in guard station, the man said neither made an attempt to stop the attack. It was unclear whether the deputies on duty even realized that a beating was going on, according to the inmate and investigators assigned to the case.

“It’s a large dorm,” Brown said. “There is a control booth in there. Most of the inmates [interviewed by detectives] said the deputy was at the other end of the control booth and was not paying attention.”

According to the witness--who was serving a two-day sentence on a drunk-driving conviction--many inmates in the cell noticed the fight, but were afraid to try to stop it.

“I looked up to see what was going on, and the guy in the bunk next to me said, ‘You don’t see nothing, you don’t hear nothing,’ ” the witness said. “I didn’t want any trouble. I minded my own business.”

Deputies are supposed to walk through the dorm on a regular basis to check the inmates. However, the witness said that did not happen the night he was in the dorm.

“There were no guards in there,” he said. “The inmates had the run of the asylum.”

Around midnight, the witness said, the inmates were moved out of the dorm so deputies could check the beds. At that point, they found Sanchez’s body.

“The next morning the trusties told us he was in on child molestation charges,” the former inmate said.

The witness said that he also believed that the inmates raped Sanchez. However, the autopsy found no evidence that the young man had been sexually assaulted.

Meanwhile, Sanchez’s mother, Maria Gomez, said she continues to mourn the loss of her son.

“All I can say is that he was innocent,” Gomez said. “Of all that has happened, he was innocent.”

She said all the sheriff’s officials would tell her about her son’s death was that they were “sorry.”

“They can’t bring him back by saying sorry,” she said.

In another of the controversies dogging the county jail system, Sheriff Sherman Block on Wednesday denounced actor Robert Downey Jr. as manipulative and again urged that a court block Downey’s permission to leave jail to work on a movie project.

The actor, who is serving time on drug charges, was at a studio Wednesday and is scheduled to return there Friday, escorted by three officers from the Sheriff’s Department. The escorts’ salaries for those days are being paid by Downey.

Nevertheless, Block told a news conference at his Monterey Park office that “when people are in jail, whatever their status, they should all be treated alike except for their security needs. Nobody is entitled to special treatment.”

The sheriff has appealed a judge’s ruling allowing Downey’s release for work.

Block offered few details on his department’s investigation of reports that four deputies who previously escorted Downey to the studio solicited his autograph and were his guests at the studio commissary.

“All I can tell you is that there is a very intensive administrative investigation going on, involving a number of our personnel who appear to have gone beyond what is appropriate in escorting him to the studio on prior occasions,” Block said.

Downey has 26 days remaining on his sentence and the release days do not count toward that tally, the sheriff said. “‘We are not trying to keep him any longer because the sooner he gets out the better I’d like it,” Block said.

Times staff writers Larry Gordon and Hugo Martin contributed to this story.