Jail inmate alleges abuse by deputies

An Orange County jail inmate has filed a federal lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department alleging that deputies beat and kicked him and later placed him in an isolation cell for more than two months without access to chapel, exercise or telephones.

Attorneys for Blaine Bocker filed the lawsuit at the federal courthouse in Santa Ana and asked to include other inmates as plaintiffs as part of a class-action lawsuit against the department.

John McDonald, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said the department’s policy and practice is to provide inmates with access to religion, recreation, telephone and other privileges they are entitled to by law.