2 Inmates Ordered to Pay Guard $10 Million

A California prison guard has won a $10-million judgment against two inmates who attacked him at the state prison in Lancaster -- a major victory for a group of guards that has taken up targeting violent inmates in civil court.

The judgment was entered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge this month after the two defendants -- Gregory P. Gaines and Harold X. Wesley -- failed to adequately file formal responses with the court, said R. Rex Parris, an attorney for prison guard Demond Blunt.

Gaines and Wesley attacked Blunt last April 2 as he was walking across an exercise yard, Lancaster prison spokesman Lt. Ken Lewis said. In the civil case, Blunt, who is 25 and has worked for the prison system for 2 1/2 years, said he suffered “permanent traumatic brain injury” from the attack. He remains partially paralyzed and on disability.

The case was filed with help from the California Staff Assault Task Force, a group that is not aligned with the prison guards union or the state Department of Corrections.

Task force members believe prisoners serving long sentences have nothing to lose by attacking corrections officers. They hope judgments such as this one will allow guards to seize even the paltriest inmate possessions -- such as hot plates and radios -- as a means to deter future attacks.

Parris assumes the prisoners don’t have much money. But he hopes Blunt can seize whatever money he can from them.

“We’re taking it,” Parris said. “I don’t mean to sound coldblooded about this, but corrections officers are dying, and they’re dying because these people feel there’s nothing that can be done to them because they’re already in a Level IV [high-security] prison.”

Parris said that one of the prisoners wrote a response to the suit in longhand, but that it was “nonsensical” and didn’t comply with court rules. Judge Alan S. Rosenfield entered the judgment of $10,253,792.57 against the two men March 3.

Blunt said it was hard to feel good about the judgment when the chances of recouping anything were slim. But he said it might be worthwhile if he is able to recoup any money the inmates make in the future.

“The only satisfaction I get out of this is if these inmates ever get out prison, they’ll never have anything,” he said.

Parris said Blunt could use the courts to seize the inmates’ property or take their future wages. The prisoners could file exemptions to protect some property from seizure if they could prove they were destitute.