L.A. County sheriff’s deputy acquitted of final charge in jail assault case

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was acquitted Monday on a final charge of assaulting an inmate at the Compton courthouse, closing a trial in which he was convicted of simple assault against inmates but cleared of more serious charges, authorities said.

Jurors finished deliberations by finding Jermaine Jackson, 38, not guilty of one count of assault by a public officer after prosecutors alleged he pummeled inmate Cesar Campana in 2009, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Jurors last week convicted Jackson of one other misdemeanor count of simple assault involving the 2009 incident with Campana and two counts of misdemeanor assault in connection with a 2010 confrontation with another inmate, Derek Griscavage. The jury acquitted Jackson of attacking a third inmate.

Sentencing will take place June 6, said Robison, who added that Jackson was released on his own recognizance. Each misdemeanor count carries a maximum of six months in jail.

The deputy was charged with attacking the inmates during three incidents at the Compton courthouse lockup and the Twin Towers correctional facility in downtown Los Angeles from 2009 to 2011. Jurors acquitted him Friday of three counts each of assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, a felony, assault by a public officer and filing a false report.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ann Marie Wise said during opening statements in the case that Jackson ruled the Twin Towers facility “with an iron fist.” Although the charges against him mirror much of the jail abuse scandal that plagued the Sheriff’s Department for years, Wise said Jackson’s conduct was overlooked because it happened before a federal investigation made the abuse claims common knowledge.

The charges against Jackson stemmed from an internal Sheriff’s Department investigation, but they came amid the FBI inquiry into rampant misconduct by deputies within the jail system. This month, a federal jury convicted former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, and in February former Sheriff Lee Baca admitted to lying to federal investigators.

Jurors, however, were instructed to disregard the larger jail scandal when weighing the charges against Jackson, Wise said after the trial finished Monday. She said jurors told her they were frustrated with the way the Sheriff’s Department handled its review of Jackson’s alleged use of force. The deputy’s supervisors found his use of force justified in several of the incidents before a department criminal investigation resulted in charges.

“I think ultimately they elected to convict on the lesser charges because they felt that the uses of force were not malicious, but perhaps, excessive,” she said.

Vicki Podberesky, an attorney representing Jackson, said the larger jail scandal probably influenced jurors’ decision to convict her client on the lesser misdemeanor charges.

“It’s a difficult time for a sheriff’s deputy to defend himself or herself on misconduct charges within the jail,” Podberesky said.

She said she plans to file motions to dismiss the misdemeanor convictions. Jackson has been on leave without pay from the Sheriff’s Department since he was charged, but will probably face termination based on the misdemeanor convictions, she said.

The agency has 30 days to render a final decision on his status with the department, said Capt. Christopher Reed, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

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FOR THE RECORD

3:45 p.m.: An earlier version of this story mistakenly referred to Christopher Reed as a sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He holds the rank of captain.

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The criminal case against Jackson dates from New Year’s Eve 2009, when Campana was housed in the Compton courthouse lockup.

Wise said Jackson yanked the inmate by his shirt and slammed him against the ground before repeatedly punching him and then kicking him in the head. A juror gasped when Wise projected an image of Campana’s swollen forehead bearing a red X-like figure. The pattern, Wise said, matched the shoelaces on Jackson’s boot.

The second incident involving Jackson happened inside Twin Towers jail on Christmas Day 2010, after an unwarranted search quickly escalated into violence, the prosecutor alleged. Wise said Jackson and other deputies made up a lie to cover their tracks.

On their reports, the deputies wrote that an inmate, Griscavage, had been searched because he was passing contraband. That wasn’t true, Wise said, adding that Jackson punched Griscavage in the temple so hard that he passed out.

Two other Twin Towers employees — Jayson Ellis and Karin Cring — were also charged in the Christmas Day incident. Prosecutors said Ellis, 28, a custody assistant, assaulted Griscavage, and Cring, 33, a deputy who is no longer with the department, lied on a report in false support of Jackson.

Prosecutors said the jail staff concocted a story that Griscavage had passed contraband to justify the unwarranted search, which ultimately led to the assault.

Because Cring agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution and against Jackson, Wise told jurors that the district attorney’s office agreed to reduce her charge to a misdemeanor. Ellis pleaded guilty last year to one count of assault.

Jackson, who was also charged with assaulting inmate Jonathan Murray in 2011, was convicted of simple assault in the beatings of Campana and Griscavage. He was acquitted on all charges connected to Murray’s incident.

Podberesky said that if the department wants to repair problems inside the county jail system, the agency should revise its policies rather than building criminal cases against individual deputies.

“I’m not saying that there aren’t bad deputy sheriffs and there aren’t problems, but it gets very difficult to separate out a deputy who is acting in policy, who has been commended by the department for what he’s done, who is told by every single supervisor and three commanders that his actions are within policy and they are the right actions to take,” she said. “To now convict him of anything is wrong.”

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