Guard Indicted in Pelican Bay Shooting

After a yearlong investigation into alleged brutality and cover-up at Pelican Bay State Prison, a federal grand jury Tuesday indicted a former officer on charges of setting up the 1994 shooting of an inmate in an exercise yard.

David Gene Lewis, 51, of Crescent City faces one count of violating the civil rights of the inmate he wounded and a second count of using a firearm to commit the offense.

Inmate Harry Long was engaged in a fistfight with another prisoner when Lewis, from 100 yards away, fired and struck Long in the chest, nearly killing him, according to a Corrections Department report.

Lewis could not be reached for comment after he was indicted Tuesday in San Francisco, but he has previously denied any plot to shoot the inmate.

The guard told state investigators that he fired the bullet only after the two inmates ignored both orders to stop fighting and a warning shot.

Lance Corcoran, a vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., noted that Lewis was cleared by a state shooting review board.

“I don’t think that any officer goes to work, whether it’s 1999 or 1994, and thinks to themselves they can’t wait to shoot anyone,” he said.

The indictment is part of an ongoing FBI investigation into allegations that guards set up inmate beatings and stabbings at the maximum security prison near the California-Oregon border, federal sources say.

“The Justice Department will not hesitate to prosecute law enforcement officers who cross the line and abuse their authority,” said Bill Lann Lee, acting assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. “No one, not even a law enforcement officer, is above the law.”

The allegations of set-up violence at Pelican Bay arose in 1995 and centered on a clique of officers who oversaw one of two main recreation yards. Inmates alleged that officers were directing a group of prisoners to stab and beat other inmates, many of them convicted child molesters.

The officers, it was alleged, rewarded inmate cohorts with extra time outside their cells, fast-food burritos, Jack Daniel’s whiskey and silk underwear for conjugal visits.

The prison’s internal affairs team was the first to investigate allegations that the June 20, 1994, shooting of Long, a convicted rapist, may have been planned.

Two officers told the team that Lewis was at a post far away from the fight and that another gun-post officer was much closer, according to state reports.

Several inmates backed up the officers’ account, alleging that the fight between Long and another inmate was arranged by officers. One inmate said he overheard a discussion about the assault and shooting before it happened.

No state charges were ever filed in the case. A state board found that the shooting was justified.

Members of the internal affairs team investigating the shooting told The Times last year that their inquiry was stymied by the powerful prison guards union after union members complained to the warden and state officials about the investigation.

Lewis was dismissed after officers testified that he routinely made derogatory comments about black inmates and allegedly encouraged prisoners to beat up child molesters.

Last year, the FBI and Corrections Department investigators reopened the case, and officers and inmates have been called before a grand jury in San Francisco.

If convicted, Lewis faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The federal grand jury action marked the second time in recent years that the FBI has investigated a prison in California, where guards have engaged in the unusual practice of shooting inmates involved in fistfights. The practice is unheard of in other states.

Last year, a federal grand jury indicted eight guards and supervisors at Corcoran State Prison for allegedly setting up fights between rival gang members and then using the fights as a pretext to shoot inmates in the recreation yards.

After Tuesday’s indictment was announced, U.S. Atty. Robert S. Mueller III in San Francisco vowed that his office would vigorously enforce civil rights laws.

“Particularly where there are allegations that a law enforcement officer has committed a crime, we will work with other federal and state officials to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute the case,” he said.

State Corrections Director Cal Terhune said that the overwhelming majority of corrections staff members are law-abiding and that his agency has been assisting federal authorities. “We’ll continue to work with them,” he said.