Prison Guard Denies Inmate Asked for Help

One of four guards accused of setting up a prisoner’s rape testified Thursday that the inmate never asked for help or said his life would be in danger because of his new cellmate.

Sgt. Joe Sanchez said inmate Eddie Dillard simply asked to be moved from his cell and never mentioned that his cellmate, Wayne Robertson, had raped him. Robertson is known at Corcoran as the “Booty Bandit” because of his well-known propensity to rape other prisoners.

The guards are on trial for allegedly setting up the rape at Corcoran State Prison to punish Dillard for kicking a guard at another prison. The guards, who are on paid leave, face up to nine years in prison if convicted.

“As I approached the cell (Dillard) made the comment, ‘What am I doing here?’ ” Sanchez said. “I asked him his name and he failed to answer. He said, ‘I need a cell change.’ ”

The prosecution maintains that Dillard told Sanchez that he had been raped by Robertson, that his life was in danger, and that Sanchez did nothing to stop the attacks.

Sanchez, the first of the guards to testify in the trial, said Dillard also told him: “Me and this dude aren’t getting along.” He said he looked Dillard up and down, searching for signs of blood or bruises, and found nothing. He said he also looked over Dillard’s cellmate, the 230-pound, 6-foot, 3-inch Robertson, searching for signs of a fight, and also found nothing.

“Dillard never said his life was in danger, or that he’d been assaulted, or raped or sodomized,” Sanchez said.

“If he had told me that, he’d been put out of [that cell] immediately.”

Sanchez also testified that, before this interaction with Dillard, he had never heard of or met either Dillard or Robertson.