6 Latino Inmates Charged After Violence at Jail

Six men have been charged in the severe beating of an inmate during last week’s racially charged riots at the Pitchess Detention Center near Castaic, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.

In the first criminal charges to arise from three days of chaos that left more than 80 inmates injured, authorities said the six Latino inmates attacked a 21-year-old black prisoner April 26, slamming his head into a concrete floor and cracking his skull. He remains in critical condition on life support, said Cmdr. Steve Day of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The six men face attempted murder and mayhem charges, authorities said. They were allegedly acting in concert with other Latino inmates to attack African Americans, who are outnumbered at the facility by Latinos 2 to 1.

Many of the attacks were caught by dormitory video cameras, and sheriff’s officials said they are planning to press more charges.

“We’re looking at all the serious incidents and plan to follow this up,” said Assistant Sheriff Dennis Dahlman.

Charges were filed against Ramon Brizuela, 26; Johnny Contreras, 30; Carlos Roberto Robledo, 19; Jesus Alberto Fonseca, 23; Antonio Cruz, 18; and Jose Juan Campos, 24.

Robledo is also being charged with using a shank to stab the victim, Ahmad Burwell.

Also Wednesday, top sheriff’s officials met with advocates of black inmates and agreed to redouble efforts to prevent more African Americans from getting attacked in jail.

Both inmate advocates and sheriff’s officials characterized the hourlong meeting at the sheriff’s headquarters as a productive step toward soothing tensions at Pitchess, which officials said have been the highest in several years.

The discussion centered on how to better protect African American inmates.

“We don’t disagree with [inmate advocates] that we need racial balance,” Dahlman said. “And we’re going to take another hard look at the ratio balance in the dorms.”

The meeting was attended by Dahlman, Sheriff’s Chief Taylor Moorehead, community activists Melvin Farmer and Najee Ali, and the mother of a recently injured inmate.

Dahlman agreed to let the activists visit the Pitchess compound, which houses 10,000 inmates, later this week and to meet with them again if problems arise.

“They seem to really want to work with us to get things back under control,” Ali said.

Still, Ali voiced concerns about plans to re-integrate the dorms at Pitchess. After last week’s disturbances, authorities took the unusual step of segregating the dorms by race. They have said they don’t have the resources or the space to permanently segregate inmates and plan to re-integrate the dorms next week.

Evelyn Womack, whose son was stabbed in the back last week during a jail fight, said the meeting with sheriff’s officials had given her hope. On Tuesday, Womack and half a dozen other mothers spoke out against jail conditions at a news conference outside the Men’s Central Jail downtown.

“I felt hope in my heart that these men were going to try to straighten things out,” Womack said after the meeting. “I know things are hard, that there are a lot of bad people in jail, but many of these boys don’t want to keep fighting.”