County : Two More Inmates Say They Were Beaten at Jail

Two more Orange County Jail inmates Monday filed official complaints of being beaten by jail deputies in elevators, where they are out of sight of TV monitors and other inmates.

The two complaints were made in financial claims against the county, a necessary step before filing a lawsuit in Superior Court. A third inmate, Tony W. Taylor, 28, filed a federal lawsuit last week alleging that six sheriff’s deputies beat him in an elevator after he protested one deputy’s treatment of another inmate.

Dick Herman, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, said last week’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in a bid to get the issue before U.S. District Judge William P. Gray, who has been looking into Orange County Jail issues for two years.

Herman said that other inmate complaints may follow.

“The fact that three inmates were treated this way in elevators in different incidents gives their complaints credibility to me,” Herman said.

Monday’s claims were filed by Ronald D. Lopez, 34, and Richard G. Aguirre Jr., 31. Lopez alleged that a week ago four deputies beat him in an elevator while he was in leg chains and his hands were handcuffed behind his back. He said the deputies threw him against the wall and then slammed him with their bodies.

Aguirre alleged that he was beaten July 23 by four deputies in an elevator, body-slammed and then kicked until he bled. Both men said they were denied adequate medical treatment afterward.