By Sarah Lundy and Walter Pacheco
Orlando Sentinel
Caption: Ricardo Harris, 19, pleaded no contest last month to robbery with a firearm and was sentenced to nine months in jail. (ORANGE COUNTY JAIL / June 9, 2008)
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County inmate who claimed he was beaten while a corrections officer watched -- will ask a judge this morning to allow him to serve the rest of his sentence elsewhere for his own safety.
The unusual hearing comes while an investigation is under way into a possible “fight club” involving corrections officers and inmates at the Orange County Jail.
Orange County attorney Tom Drage has confirmed that senior jail administrators learned about the alleged “staged inmate boxing matches” sanctioned by corrections officers on May 18, according to records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.
Jail officials launched an internal-affairs investigation the following day and placed four corrections officers on administrative duty, where they are prohibited from having contact with inmates. The county has refused to name them.
A separate, criminal investigation is being conducted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
“We’re diligently looking into it,” said sheriff’s Chief Ron Stucker.
Rufus Harris said his son thinks he was targeted in the jail because he had tried to tell his father about the sanctioned fights.
Ricardo Harris, 19, pleaded no contest last month to robbery with a firearm and was sentenced to nine months in jail.
His son tried to tell him through phone conversations and letters from jail about the fights set up by corrections officers, Rufus Harris said. The calls were often cut off, and the older Harris never received any letters.
“He was trying to tell us what’s going on because that’s the right thing to do,” Rufus Harris said. “In jail, it’s not.”
The older Harris detailed his son’s attack in a letter to Orange Circuit Court Judge Bob Wattles, who presided over Ricardo Harris’ criminal case and granted the hearing set for this morning.
“The corrections officers were moving him from his cell and their (sic) were five other inmates in the hallway, the correctional officers allowed all five inmates the opportunity to beat Ricardo for three minutes, beating him down to the floor,” Rufus Harris wrote in the May 29 letter. “Ricardo was kicked and stomped in the head, face, upper torso and his face was cut under his left eye.
“The correctional officers are staging these fights and then covering them up,” the letter said.
Wattles said he read the letter and reviewed Ricardo Harris’ court file. “I felt the hearing on the allegations would be appropriate,” he said.
On Monday, jail officials would not allow a Sentinel reporter to interview Ricardo Harris, citing jail policy, which prevents inmates from talking to the media about conditions at the jail.
“The jail has nothing to hide. There are more than adequate procedures in place for inmates to complain about jail conditions and policy,” said jail spokesman Allen Moore.
While Harris’ father said his son filed a grievance after the beating, Moore said the jail has no grievances on file from the teenager. But there is an incident report on Ricardo Harris’ April 27 attack.
In it, Harris states that six other inmates in the jail’s main facility assaulted him “for no apparent reason.” No one saw the fight, according to the incident report. Harris was taken to Dr. P. Phillips Hospital for treatment.
All the inmates involved, including Harris, were cited for fighting and a disciplinary review is pending. The fighting violation against Harris was later dismissed. It’s unclear what happened to the other six inmates.
Investigators looking into the “fight club” allegations at the Horizon Facility at the jail interviewed Ricardo Harris about the incident, Moore said, but found no link.
“The inmate was interviewed and it was determined that he was not involved in the incident under investigation in Horizon,” Moore said.
Copyright 2008 Orlando Sentinel