No Charges in Videotaped Beating Case

California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer on Friday announced that he would not pursue criminal charges against six correctional counselors who were participants or witnesses in the videotaped beating of two inmates at a Stockton youth prison.

After reviewing the case, Lockyer said there was insufficient evidence to successfully prosecute the officers and that the San Joaquin County district attorney did not abuse his discretion in reaching a similar conclusion.

“This office will not be taking any further action in the matter at this time,” Lockyer said in a letter to the California Youth Authority, which operates the prison and oversees about 4,000 offenders statewide.

The violent and graphic videotape of the Jan. 20 incident made waves throughout the state’s corrections system and the state Capitol. After the local district attorney declined to prosecute the officers, the Youth Authority asked Lockyer to review the decision. Outraged lawmakers called for action, and state Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) showcased the dramatic video at a news conference.

Romero, who has led legislative efforts to reform the Youth Authority, called Lockyer’s decision a “major disappointment,” and said she believed the attorney general had decided to “walk away from a hot potato.”

In separate interviews, Romero and a top corrections official said they might ask the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento to evaluate the case for possible prosecution of civil rights violations.

“We’re reviewing the attorney general’s reasons for declining prosecution,” said Tip Kindel, assistant secretary at the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which oversees the Youth Authority. “Certainly it was a disappointment. I think everybody within the agency that saw the tape did not like what they saw.”

The beating occurred at the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton. CYA officials said two correctional counselors were talking with two young inmates, Narcisco Morales and Vincent Baker, in a small office when one of the inmates allegedly punched one of the counselors.

The ensuing scuffle spilled into a lounge that was equipped with a security camera. The videotape showed the counselors wrestling the inmates to the floor, where one sat astride Morales and punched him more than two dozen times in the head. A second counselor drove his knee into Baker’s neck several times, and appeared to kick the inmate in the face after he had been handcuffed.

The tape also showed that another staff member sprayed the inmates with a chemical agent as they lay face down, while another fired rounds from a gun that shoots balls of pepper spray.

The review examined the original videotape and an enhanced version, along with investigative reports, the disciplinary records of the alleged victims and the employment histories of the employees.

Lockyer said the district attorney’s assessment of the case was bolstered by “the fact that the wards started the attack on the youth counselors, the fact that the wards suffered [minimal injuries], the fact that one of the counselors suffered more significant injuries....”

As for allegations that the counselors submitted false reports that were contradicted by the video, Lockyer said, “There is a normal and expected amount of variations in the accounts.... We cannot say that the counselors’ reports demonstrate a knowing and intentional misstatement of the facts.”

The attorney general noted that the fact that the counselors could be punished by the CYA administration for their actions figured heavily in his decision.

Lockyer could not be reached for comment on his findings or Romero’s criticisms.

Kindel said an administrative investigation of the employees would be complete in a few weeks. Discipline stemming from that inquiry could be as severe as termination.

Jim Willett, the assistant San Joaquin County district attorney, expressed satisfaction that Lockyer validated his office’s decision not to prosecute the counselors. “Our initial finding was that there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Willett said. “The attorney general agrees, based on his assessment of all the evidence, not merely on a snippet of videotape.”

The attorney general’s office conducted two reviews of the case. In March, Lockyer concluded that the district attorney had not abused his discretion in choosing not to file charges against four of the six officers. After the district attorney decided against prosecuting the remaining two, Lockyer reviewed the evidence against all six.

San Joaquin County Deputy Public Defender Dennise Henderson, who represents Baker, was among those angered by Lockyer’s decision. “The video speaks for itself,” Henderson said. “This sends a message that if you beat a child at CYA, you will never be held criminally responsible.”

The district attorney, she noted, did not hesitate to file criminal assault charges against the two wards for allegedly attacking the employees. Those charges were dropped after the employees declined to testify, invoking their 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Romero said that Lockyer’s decision reaffirms the importance of passing SB 1676, her bill that would change the standard of review used by the attorney general’s office in evaluating such cases.

That bill, opposed by Lockyer, cleared its first hurdle Tuesday in the Senate Public Safety Committee.

Sue Burrell of the Youth Law Center, which has sued the state over conditions within the CYA, called Lockyer’s decision “outrageous.”

“Anyone who saw the video can’t come away with any feeling other than that it was unmitigated brutality,” Burrell said. “To not even present it to a jury or a court -- a neutral fact-finder -- is a real blow to the integrity of our justice system.”