FBI Probes Deaths at 2 More State Prisons

As part of the federal government’s growing scrutiny of California prisons, the FBI is launching civil rights investigations at the Pelican Bay and Susanville penitentiaries into the role guards may have played in the beatings and killings of inmates.

FBI officials said the decision to investigate follows a number of recent assaults and deaths of inmates at the two maximum-security prisons in Northern California.

At Pelican Bay, agents will try to determine if rival inmates attacked each other at the behest of prison staff, including at least one assault earlier this month that resulted in the stabbing death of an inmate, according to FBI officials. At the High Desert State Prison in Susanville, FBI agents have begun looking into the Feb. 4 death of inmate David Torres, who was gunned down by an officer during a prison yard fight.

“We have opened a preliminary civil rights investigation into the shooting death of inmate Torres,” said Jim Maddock, head of the FBI office in Sacramento. “As far as Pelican Bay is concerned, that is being handled by the FBI in San Francisco. At this point, I can’t say anything more.”

An FBI spokesman in San Francisco declined to comment on the probe, but a U.S. Justice Department official in Washington confirmed that agents would be focusing on possible violations of Pelican Bay inmates’ civil rights.

The state Department of Corrections characterized the FBI probes as routine investigations prompted by complaints from family members of the deceased inmates.

“Just like any law enforcement agency, the FBI is required to follow up and investigate any complaints,” said Christine May, a department spokeswoman. “It does not appear to be an investigation into the Department of Corrections as a whole.”

May said her agency was not aware of an FBI inquiry involving Pelican Bay. She said the complaints arose out of the Torres killing at High Desert and the death of an unnamed inmate at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville. “Our understanding is that the FBI is looking at these two specific complaints. Like any other investigation, we will cooperate with them in any way they request.”

Until now, most of the federal government’s attention has been focused on the troubled lockup at Corcoran in the San Joaquin Valley. On Wednesday, eight prison officers and supervisors pleaded not guilty to charges of setting up fights between rival inmates at Corcoran and then covering up the violence by falsifying incident reports.

In one 1994 fight, prosecutors allege, some of the officers gathered in a control booth to watch for fun as one officer quipped, “It’s going to be duck hunting season.” The fight ended when an officer fired a rifle at one of the aggressors and killed 25-year-old inmate Preston Tate by mistake.

In the federal court in Fresno, one lieutenant, two sergeants and five officers were each charged with four counts that include bodily injury of inmates, conspiracy to deprive inmates of their civil rights and depriving inmates of their civil rights under color of law. One officer also was charged with perjury. Six of the eight still work for the Corrections Department and have been placed on administrative leave with pay.

All eight declined to comment after being released without having to post bail.

“We all believe that they are innocent,” said Fresno attorney Curtis Sisk, speaking on behalf of the eight lawyers representing the officers. “We’re quite convinced of it at this point, and we see no reason to think otherwise.”

Sisk said defense attorneys were eagerly awaiting the federal government’s “voluminous” documents as part of the discovery process. He said he doubted that the government could support the charges and predicted that it would “drag its feet” in producing the paperwork.

But Assistant U.S. Atty. Carl Faller, who oversaw the four-year investigation into alleged civil rights abuses at Corcoran, said the government would comply with its legal responsibility. “We’ll produce the information to the defense as required by law, and we remain confident in the ultimate success of the prosecution.”

Corcoran Inquiry Raised Questions

In the past, prison watchdog groups say, federal agents have shied away from investigating allegations of inmate abuse by correctional officers. But federal authorities said the Corcoran investigation raised disturbing questions about the possible role of corrections officials and the prison guard union in covering up abuses.

Last month, when announcing the Corcoran indictments, the FBI’s Maddock denounced the “intentional efforts on the part of some correctional and other officials to stymie, delay and obstruct” the federal probe.

State corrections officials and union representatives have denied impeding the Corcoran investigation or overlooking officer wrongdoing at the Pelican Bay and Susanville prisons.

Over the past two years, eight inmates have been killed by other inmates inside Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, where the prison’s most serious offenders are locked up. At least six of the killings stem from an internal war within the Aryan Brotherhood gang, according to corrections officials.

At the same time, officers at Pelican Bay have come under internal investigation for allegedly setting up inmate attacks on convicted child molesters. In January, one officer, 42-year-old Jose Garcia, was tried and convicted of conspiring to assault child molesters at Pelican Bay.

Then, two weeks ago, an inmate who testified against Officer Garcia in his Del Norte County trial was stabbed to death by another inmate. William Stanton Boyd, 36, was slain on the general population yard at the North Coast prison.

At least part of the FBI’s interest in Pelican Bay concerns Boyd’s death and whether it was in retaliation for testifying against Officer Garcia, according to two federal sources familiar with the case. Last week, a few days after Boyd’s slaying, a sergeant and an officer at Pelican Bay were placed on administrative leave for unspecified reasons.

The pair, according to their attorney, had been accused by prison authorities of helping Officer Garcia mastermind attacks on child molesters. San Francisco lawyer Bob Noel contended that the accusations were drummed up by a rival officer faction and said his clients were never charged.

Noel, who also represented Officer Garcia, said there was no link between Boyd’s testimony at Garcia’s trial and his murder. “Yes, Boyd was called to testify by the prosecution against my client, Garcia, but his testimony ended up helping Garcia,” he said.

“Boyd denied beating up child molesters at the behest of Garcia and the others. Boyd turned out to be a good witness for Garcia.”

Noel said that if Boyd was killed on the orders of prison staff, it didn’t involve Garcia or his other clients.

At Susanville, FBI agents are trying to determine if the shooting death of Torres in the recreation yard was justified. According to corrections officials, the 29-year-old inmate from Orange County belonged to a Latino gang and was involved in a melee with eight fellow gang members against 10 rivals. Torres was kicking the head of an inmate, who was on the ground, when an officer fired the fatal shot, corrections officials say.

8 Guards Plead Not Guilty

As the FBI probes at Susanville and Pelican Bay get underway, the investigation at Corcoran continues. On Wednesday, Corcoran Officers Timothy Dickerson, 38, Michael Gipson, 43, and Raul Tavarez, 38, and Sgt. Truman Jennings, 37, were charged with purposely releasing a black inmate into a recreation yard with two rival Latino inmates. The defendants allegedly goaded the Latino gang members by telling them that they should keep the fights “one on one.”

Lt. Douglas Martin, 54, Sgt. John Vaughn, 42, and Officers Christopher Bethea, 33, and Jerry Arvizu, 30, were charged with placing prisoner Tate and his cellmate into a yard with rival gang members. They did this although they were aware that a fight was likely to occur, prosecutors allege.

In a videotape of the shooting captured by prison cameras, Tate and his cellmate are seen waiting for the charge of the two Latino gang members. The tape shows shots being fired by Officer Bethea and Tate being hit in the head by a bullet apparently intended for the aggressors.

Jennings, Dickerson, Gipson and Tavarez face 10 years in prison and fines of $250,000 each if convicted of the civil rights violations. Martin, Vaughn, Bethea and Arvizu face life terms if convicted of civil rights violations and their roles in Tate’s death.

“The fact that the state of California is paying for the legal defense of these officers shows that they were acting within the scope of their authority,” said Mike Jimenez, vice president of the state correctional peace officers association. “Apparently the feds haven’t had much success with prosecuting criminals, so now they’re starting to prosecute cops.”

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this report.