Search, Detention of Worker Is Admitted : Sheriff’s Spokesman Says Denial by Jail Captain Was Mistaken

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department admitted Tuesday that Vista jail deputies did in fact strip-search an electrical contractor and force him to stand naked in a safety cell last spring, apparently after they did not like the way he was handling a job at the jail.

The concession comes a day after Jim Marmack, the captain in charge of the County Jail in Vista, denied to The Times that Floyd Craig was ever forced to remove his clothing or stand naked for about an hour in a padded cell last March 23.

Sgt. Bob Takeshta said Tuesday that Marmack was mistaken when he made that assertion.

“Capt. Marmack did not have all the facts in hand,” Takeshta said. “Mr. Craig was strip-searched, and he was placed in a safety cell. This did in fact occur.”

No Comment on Arrest Cause

However, Takeshta declined to say whether the incident prompted a Sheriff’s Department internal affairs investigation into the deputies’ conduct. He also declined to say whether the deputies had any reasonable cause to arrest Craig in the first place.

According to a claim filed this fall against the county, Craig was installing a conduit line for computer and telephone wires at the jail when deputies ordered him to remove drilling tools from the work site.

He said that, when he tried to explain that he needed the tools to complete work on the electrical installation contract, six uniformed deputies surrounded him, slammed him head-first into jail bars and led him into a safety cell. Once inside the cell, he said, the deputies forced him to strip naked and stand handcuffed facing the wall.

Later, he was released and given a citation for interfering with a peace officer. But he eventually learned that no charges were ever filed against him.

Probable Cause Questioned

His attorney, Gino Mazzanti, questioned Tuesday whether the deputies truly had any probable cause for arresting Craig and justifying their forcing him to be held naked in the cell.

“If he was making trouble or interfering with an officer, why didn’t they bring charges?” Mazzanti said. “That is the question now that they will ultimately have to answer.”

Takeshta said Tuesday that Marmack, in originally denying that Craig was strip-searched and detained, was relying on memory and did not have the jail internal files available for review.

He said that, since the incident, the Vista jail has been closed for expansion, and that all of the inmates and files have been transferred to the jail in downtown San Diego.

Takeshta also said that Marmack was not purposely trying to be misleading when he denied the allegations. “He was being honest about what he thought to be true,” he said.

Craig, interviewed Tuesday, said he could not understand why the Sheriff’s Department would deny that the incident occurred. He said that he continues to relive the incident in his mind and that the altercation has caused emotional distress and financial loss to his family.

“I know what happened,” he said. “And sometimes just thinking about it still gets to me.”