Attacks at Jail Called Unprovoked

Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies assigned to screen prisoners entering and leaving the downtown Men’s Central Jail went on trial Tuesday on charges of violating the civil rights of two gang members who contend they were beaten while handcuffed and chained around the waist.

In opening remarks to a federal court jury, Justice Department attorney Barry Williams described the attacks as unprovoked.

“Even gang members are entitled not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment,� Williams told jurors.

Deputy Abel Jimenez, a six-year department veteran, was accused of inflicting the beatings in November and December 2001, while his supervisor, Senior Deputy Phalance Burkhalter, was charged with covering up the incidents.

Prosecutors contend that the pair also tried to pressure the inmates and other jailhouse deputies to alter their stories after the Sheriff’s Department initiated an internal investigation.

“This case is as much about coercing other deputies as it is about excessive force,� Williams said.

Jimenez and Burkhalter, a 13-year veteran, were assigned to the Inmate Reception Center, a sprawling building on the fringes of Los Angeles’ Civic Center that serves as a way station for prisoners going to and from court.

Until recently, up to 1,000 prisoners were processed in the center each day. Upon their return from court, 50 inmates at a time were lined up and strip-searched by a team usually composed of three or four deputies, who carry no weapons or batons.

Deputies rely on command presence to maintain order in the search line, Jimenez’s lawyer, Ed Rucker, said in his opening statement Tuesday.

Under these circumstances, he said, there is no tolerance for any deputy with a “macho problem.� Jimenez, he added, was known as a “gentle giant� who never would have instigated a fight with an inmate.

According to prosecutors, Jimenez attacked inmate Joe Mendez, an alleged member of the Southsiders street gang, on Nov. 28, 2001, because of a look Mendez allegedly gave him. The deputy pulled Mendez out of his cell, placed him in handcuffs and waist chains and escorted him to an isolation cell, where he punched and kicked him in the head and body, the government charged.

Later that day, Burkhalter warned Mendez that the guards would exact revenge if he tried to press charges, and he instructed the inmate to say he had fallen out of his bed, prosecutors said.

Eventually, Mendez filed a grievance. Jimenez and Burkhalter were questioned and denied having had contact with him.

A month later, on New Year’s Eve, Jimenez became embroiled in a confrontation with inmate Juan Barragan, described in court Tuesday as a “shot-caller� for the Southsiders and a soldier in the Mexican Mafia.

Prosecutors said Jimenez pulled Barragan out of the search line because he disobeyed an order to stop shaking out his pants. Jimenez placed him in chains, ordered him to kneel on a metal bench and threw him to the floor, they said. Barragan started yelling and Jimenez proceeded to punch him in the back of the head, they said.

To cover up the incident, Jimenez prepared a fabricated report alleging that Barragan was injured during a fight with another inmate, the prosecution charged. Burkhalter was also accused of threatening Barragan with reprisal unless he went along with the story.

Rucker said the fall was accidental. “No one slugged or punched him,� the defense lawyer said. He also described Barragan’s injury as superficial.

The Sheriff’s Department launched an internal investigation after a County Jail nurse notified a senior commander that Barragan had said he was beaten by a deputy. Jimenez and Burkhalter were relieved of duty.