The Daily News of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — Horrific details of alleged abuse at the hands of deputies inside Men’s Central Jail were revealed Monday, when a chaplain and ACLU jail monitors testified before a panel about beatings they witnessed.
Deacon Paulino Juarez-Ramirez, a chaplain with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, told the Citizen’s Commission on Jail Violence that he witnessed three beatings, including one inside a chapel.
He said the first incident occurred in 2000, when about half a dozen deputies attacked an inmate for proceeding to walk toward the chapel after they had ordered him to stop in the hallway.
The chaplain said deputies slammed the inmate against a wall, then punched and kicked him repeatedly until another chaplain intervened, yelling, “Please, stop this!”
In the second incident, Juarez-Ramirez said he, another chaplain and a volunteer witnessed deputies beating an inmate handcuffed to a bench in 2004.
He said the inmate got into a verbal altercation with deputies, who pummeled him even after he stopped resisting.
The third incident, which occurred in 2009, prompted the chaplain to leave Men’s Central Jail in fear.
Juarez-Ramirez said he saw several deputies beating an inmate inside a cell. He said three deputies were punching and kicking an inmate who was not fighting back.
During the attack, he said, the deputies repeatedly yelled, “Stop fighting! Stop resisting!” even after the inmate had fallen on the floor, blood pooling around his head.
The chaplain paused during his testimony, overcome by emotion."I just was terrified,” he said.
Juarez-Ramirez was able to meet with Sheriff Lee Baca two years after the incident. During the meeting, he said, Baca reprimanded his staff for not telling him about the abuse.
The American Civil Liberties Union has been a court- appointed monitor of the Los Angeles County jail system since 1985.
One jail monitor, Esther Lim, testified Tuesday that she also saw several deputies beating and kicking an inert inmate while yelling, “Stop fighting! Stop resisting!”
She said one of them also used his Taser multiple times.
“It was really frightening what I had seen, especially given that I had already heard countless inmates telling me about being beaten by deputies,” she said. “I had also heard of retaliation, and so the fear really set in after I saw the beating.”
Both she and another ACLU jail monitor, Mary Tiedeman, shed tears while testifying about the abuse.
Gabriel Carillo said he himself was beaten by deputies in 2011 when he was trying to visit his incarcerated brother at Men’s Central Jail.
He said deputies put him in a room after discovering his girlfriend had a cellphone with her. Cellphones are barred from the premises.
He said they punched and kicked him until he blacked out. They also allegedly pepper sprayed him.
Carillo has sued the Sheriff’s Department.
The county Board of Supervisors created the Citizen’s Commission on Jail Violence to investigate alleged abuse within the county jail system and make recommendations. It took no action during Tuesday’s meeting, but is scheduled to meet again next month.
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