Guards’ Silence Is Questioned

SACRAMENTO —  New evidence of a “code of silence” that protects rogue prison guards from punishment emerged Wednesday in a confidential investigative report about the beating of two inmates at a state youth facility in Stockton.

The report obtained by The Times shows that descriptions of the beatings by four employees are in conflict with a videotape of the Jan. 20 incident at the California Youth Authority prison.

“The reports were misleading, factually false and contradicted by witness statements and the videotape evidence,” according to the report, prepared by a team of six special agents for the Youth Authority.

Given such discrepancies, CYA investigators are pushing Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer to file criminal charges against the four staff members -- and the two correctional counselors involved in the beatings. All six employees also could face disciplinary sanctions -- including firing -- once an internal CYA inquiry is complete.

Corrections officials would not discuss details of the Jan. 20 incident at the N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility, citing the investigations.

But privately, authorities say the episode illustrates the challenge of reforming a prison culture in which officers are willing to distort facts to protect themselves and their own.

Last month, Youth and Adult Corrections Secretary Roderick Q. Hickman sent a memo to all prison employees, declaring “zero tolerance” for the code of silence.

An assistant secretary at the agency, Tip Kindel, said officials did not want to prejudge the staff members involved in the CYA incident.

He added, however, that when investigators tried to question the employees, they refused to answer, invoking their 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.

“We find it unfortunate that they felt the need to invoke that privilege,” Kindel said.

Critics of California’s prison system said they had hoped the Schwarzenegger administration would send a message by pushing hard for prosecution in the CYA beatings.

“This incident makes it clear that all our concerns about the code of silence were justified,” said Sue Burrell of the Youth Law Center, which often sues the state over its treatment of young offenders.

“People who can’t refrain from hitting wards 23 times -- and people who think it’s OK to protect them -- don’t belong in these jobs.”

The report obtained Wednesday says the videotape, which has not been made public, clearly shows the use of inappropriate force by the two correctional counselors, Delwin Brown and Marcel Berry, on inmates Vincent Baker, 19, of Stockton and Narcisco Morales, 21, of Madera.

Though the scuffle started when Morales punched Brown during a meeting in their housing unit, the counselors continued pummeling the inmates for about 30 seconds after they were face-down on the floor and offering no resistance, the report said.

Brown, his nose bleeding, straddled Morales’ back and struck him in the head and face 28 times with his fists, the report said, at one point lifting the inmate’s head off the floor “in what appeared to be a conscious attempt to get a better angle for his punches.”

Berry, the videotape showed, dropped himself -- knee first -- onto Baker’s neck and back several times while the inmate was no longer resisting. After handcuffing him, the report said, Berry kicked Baker in the face, leaving a bruise on his cheek.

The report includes interviews with 35 other wards in Pajaro Hall, 22 of whom agreed to talk and who viewed all or part of the episode through the windows of their cells. Their descriptions of the fight are similar and, in many cases, consistent with the videotape.

One inmate said “Brown was so mad he looked like the Incredible Hulk.” Another youth said Brown “lost it” and that Berry was “out of pocket,” or unprofessional, as he kicked Baker, kneed him in the head and “jabbed him in the ribs and face,” the report said.

The accounts of the four other employees -- two correctional counselors and two officers -- were provided in writing soon after the incident and paint a different picture. They suggest a more volatile situation in which the counselors and inmates were mostly exchanging blows, and the force used by Brown and Berry was in self-defense.

In addition, two of the employees suggest that it was necessary to fire a “pepperball launcher” -- a device that shoots a ball filled with pepper spray -- at Morales, striking him in the arms, because he was “noncompliant.”

The report, however, said the videotape showed the three pepperball rounds were fired after Morales was face-down with his hands on his head and Brown on his back.

Investigators also were critical of the onlookers for failing to intervene and stop the beating until security arrived from elsewhere in the prison. Until that time, there was no attempt to handcuff either of the inmates, which is standard procedure after an assault.

Lance Corcoran, vice president of the union that represents the employees, said he had not seen the videotape or the investigative report.

“I don’t know the totality of the circumstances, but I will say that when you’re assaulted, your thinking is not as clear as it can be,” Corcoran said. “Some people think the force was excessive. But for whatever reason,” he continued, the San Joaquin County district attorney “decided not to file charges, and he had the benefit of seeing the tape.”

The altercation in Stockton follows a series of reports portraying juvenile prisons as overrun with violence and plagued by numerous other problems. The CYA’s new director, Walter Allen, has pledged to turn around the youth system. Last week, Allen called the videotape of the beating “very troubling.”

Aside from some welts and scratches, the inmates -- now housed in San Joaquin County jail -- were not injured in the beating.

The CYA’s Brown suffered a cut on his lip that required stitches, and had bruising on his nose. Berry had swelling near his temple, a nurse said in the report, and had sore hands.

A spokeswoman for Lockyer said no decision had been made on whether to take the case. Previously, the San Joaquin County district attorney had declined to file charges, saying it would not be possible to persuade a jury that the conduct had amounted to criminal assault.