By Scott Sandlin
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M — A former jail guard charged with enabling the severe beating of an inmate left near death says she’s being scapegoated by the county for its alleged abundant failures in managing the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Roslyn Juanico says the jail’s own videos undermine what a deputy told a grand jury to obtain the indictment against her and that the case should be dismissed because it is based on testimony “so at odds with reality as to constitute flagrant perjury.” Documents filed by the defense contend the case against Juanico represents an “egregious abuse” of the legal system as the county attempts “to cover up its own morbid mismanagement of the jail ... rather than accept(ing) responsibility for the manifold institutional problems that gave rise to Avery Hadley’s beating.”
The criminal charges against Juanico and inmates Jesus Cordova and Keola Tommy Kaula stem from the March 12 beating of inmate Avery Hadley that left him unconscious after his head was stomped on up to 20 times. Juanico is charged with attempted second degree murder, conspiracy, bribery of a witness and soliciting aggravated battery. She has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
Prosecutors obtained a second indictment this week against another correctional officer and three inmates stemming from a separate beating of Hadley in November 2008.
Juanico’s attorney Mark Fine said the motion “is based on the discrepancy between how he characterized the video and what it actually showed. It’s certainly curious they didn’t just show it to the grand jury.” The motion does not allege that the District Attorney’s Office was complicit, however.
A response by Assistant District Attorney Kelly Alexis Golightley says the law is not on Juanico’s side, because there is no claim of prosecutors acting in bad faith, which legal precedent requires for a case to be dismissed.
Juanico “asked that the court find the jail to be guilty rather than her because of overcrowding,” Golightley’s response said. “This has nothing to do with asking this court to dismiss an indictment.”
Fine’s motion says institutional negligence contributed to Hadley’s beating, including overcrowding of the segregation unit, understaffing of those units, failure to comply with his classification as “special-handling inmate” and management’s failure to respond to requests for either Hadley or Cordova to be moved from the unit.
At the time of the March beating, the “Seg-7" unit had 32 cells with 78 inmates, despite corrections standards that mandate only one inmate to a cell in such units.
The fight occurred when staff came up three cups short at meal time, the motion says.
The document also contends the deputy testifying before the grand jury, Charles Tuberville, incorrectly stated that “Juanico basically sat while the fight was going on, didn’t make any effort to stop the fight.” Videos plainly show her immediately leaving her seat, radioing for backup and scaling the stairs to confront Cordova and ensure that the beating stop, it says.
Copyright 2009 Albuquerque Journal