2000 years ago
Public Defender Jeff Adachi played a disturbing audio interview with San Francisco jail inmate Ricardo Garcia at a press conference yesterday. In it are very serious allegations of truly sadistic behavior on the
part of a handful of sheriff's deputies.
Since the beginning of March, at least four deputies at County Jail No. 4 at 850 Bryant St. threatened inmates with violence or withheld food if they did not fight each other, gladiator-style, for the entertainment of the deputies, Public Defender Jeff Adachi said.
Adachi said the ringleader in these fights was Deputy Scott Neu, who was accused in 2006 of forcing inmates to perform sexual acts on him. That case was settled out of court.
The press conference detailed an atmosphere of real horror, where deputies continuously threatened inmates, forced them to "train" for fights, and gamble for food. Adachi began this probe, conducted by a private investigative team, after the father of one of the inmates contacted him a couple of weeks ago.
The allegations are insane:
Neu told Garcia and Harris that if they required medical attention, they were to lie and say they fell off a bunk, Garcia said.
“And he told me anything goes,” he said. “Just don’t punch the face, so no one can basically see the marks. But anything goes, other than the face.” [...]
Harris [inmate Stanley Harris], in another recorded conversation with Adachi, said Neu once made him do 200 push-ups within an hour as part of “training.” As he did his push-ups, Neu threatened to anally rape him, telling him “he’ll take my cheeks,” Harris said.
The four deputies accused have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Their lawyer Harry Stern:
“The hypocrisy of Adachi engaging in trial by one-sided press conference cannot go unchallenged: He has done a cursory sham investigation by interviewing a few inmates over a scant two days rather than having the decency to request a serious impartial investigation,” Stern said in a statement. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Adachi didn’t initiate a formal complaint that would have been investigated thoroughly by the appropriate agencies. The investigators would have had the opportunity to interview witnesses, including the accused deputies, and look for physical evidence.” [...]
“A deputy may have encouraged one inmate to work out. The deputy may have also allowed two inmates to wrestle in order to settle a dispute about who was stronger,” he added. “The 'wrestling’ was essentially little more than horseplay. There was no betting. The inmates were never forced to work out. They were never forced to fight.”
According to the L.A. Times:
Neu was named in two federal civil rights lawsuits in 2006 and 2008 alleging he harassed a female inmate and two male-to-female transgender inmates in the jail, and forced them to perform sex acts on him.
The lawsuits resulted in settlements, records show. Neu was reassigned to inmate transport, said Adante Pointer, who represented all three plaintiffs.
San Francisco's deputies and detectives
may be a big problem right now and San Francisco is a
liberal city.