Grand Jury Eyes Brutality Allegation

The Orange County Grand Jury is investigating whether sheriff’s deputies used excessive force during an encounter with an inmate in the Men’s Central Jail late last year, according to sources familiar with the probe.

Prosecutors decided to present the case to the panel after reviewing an extensive criminal investigation carried out by sheriff’s detectives, the sources said.

The Grand Jury began taking testimony earlier this week, they said, but it’s unclear how long the inquiry will take and how many subpoenas have been issued.

Details of the alleged beating are unknown, but sources said the case involves an inmate who claims he was repeatedly kicked by at least two deputies while in custody.

Sources said the investigation is tightly focused on the one incident and that the panel is not looking at any broader pattern of alleged brutality.

The Grand Jury is expected to take testimony from deputies and supervisors at the jail to get a clearer picture of the events in question.

Officials from the district attorney’s office and Sheriff’s Department declined to comment, noting that it’s illegal to divulge information about Grand Jury investigations.

Some officials, however, stressed that the Sheriff’s Department will not tolerate violent behavior by deputies and has a good record for weeding out “problem cops.”

“If there are dirty cops . . . we’re going to ferret them out and prosecute them as vehemently as anyone on the street,” said Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo. “When so many other departments around the country are embroiled in scandal, the fact that there are no major controversies surrounding this department is testament to the professionalism and the efforts of . . . the department.”

Prosecutors’ decision to ask grand jurors to review a case of alleged misconduct by a law enforcement officer is unusual, said Brent Romney, a former top prosecutor in Orange County who teaches criminal law at Western State University College of Law.

But the tactic is often employed when prosecutors believe they have a good case but need the Grand Jury to compel unwilling witnesses to testify, he said. Prosecutors can ask the panel to review cases solely to gather evidence in a case or to obtain an indictment.

“There’s no question the district attorney is taking this seriously by convening a grand jury,” said Romney.

The Grand Jury has come under criticism from some groups for its seeming reluctance to indict Orange County law enforcement officers.

Last year, Latino activists blasted the panel for not handing up an indictment against a Santa Ana police officer who fatally shot a parolee driving a stolen car. The city later paid the parolee’s family $205,000 to settle a civil lawsuit.

The latest probe comes as the county is fighting a series of lawsuits filed in the last year alleging excessive force by deputies against inmates. In the most serious allegation, inmates claimed that deputies in riot gear beat them and doused them with pepper spray during a disturbance Thanksgiving weekend.

Attorney Jonathan Slipp, who has filed nearly a half-dozen claims against the county involving such allegations, said he believes excessive force is a widespread problem in the jail.

But sheriff’s officials have repeatedly defended their deputies, saying they have a respectful relationship with inmates despite working in one of the most crowded jail systems in the country.

Department officials said investigators have determined that the claims in the lawsuits are groundless, and they point to a decline in suicides among inmates over the last decade as evidence that jail conditions have improved.

George Wright, chairman of Santa Ana College’s criminal justice department, agreed that claims of abuse are far fewer now than a decade ago, when grand jurors often reviewed conditions in the jail.

“My impression of the jail now is that it’s been upgraded considerably,” Wright said. “I haven’t heard of the Grand Jury putting their nose in the jail for years.”