By Sam Stanton
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A California correctional officer who attacked a 65-year-old inmate who later died — and then tried to get his colleagues to cover up his actions — apologized in court Monday, and then was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison.
Arturo Pacheco, 40, is one of two California State Prison, Sacramento, COs who have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the 2016 incident involving inmate Ronnie Price, who was handcuffed and had his legs yanked out behind him by Pacheco as he and co-worker Ashley Aurich were escorting Price.
In a hearing before Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb in Sacramento — where much of the debate focused on how to keep a former prison guard safe in prison — Pacheco made a brief statement as he fought back tears.
“I’m extremely remorseful, your honor,” Pacheco said. “I apologize.”
Pacheco’s statement came after Price’s uncle, Takis Tucker, read a victim impact statement to the court about how difficult Price’s death was.
He said he was like a son to Price and now must care for his mother, Joann, who is devastated by her brother’s death and sat in the courtroom’s front row watching the sentencing.
Tucker added that the family had no idea Price’s death stemmed from an assault by a CO until recently and that they initially believed another inmate had injured Price because corrections officials never released Price’s name or issued a news release about the assault.
Then, he turned toward Pacheco to address him directly.
“We forgive you,” Tucker said. “We’re not mad. We forgive you for this.”
Pacheco nodded, and after the hearing Tucker said he felt the sentence was not long enough for Pacheco’s crime.
As he spoke, Pacheco’s family members and supporters filled the hallway, some of them weeping, while one man looked at Tucker and declared he was a “punk b----.”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Anderson and Rosanne Rust had asked Shubb to sentence Pacheco to 12 years and seven months, citing his “unprovoked, cruel attacks of two separate inmates who were entrusted to his care.”
“Instead of protecting others, Pacheco used violence because he thought it was ‘f------ funny,’ spraying an inmate-victim through a port in a closed cell door with OC spray and pulling the legs out from under another restrained inmate-victim, who consequently bashed his head into a concrete floor,” they wrote in court filings. “Rather than act with integrity, Pacheco embraced a ‘code of silence,’ getting other corrections officers to lie in official reports to cover up his crimes.
“His acts betrayed the oath he took, and he interfered with the lawful and constitutional administration of justice in California.”
Pacheco defense attorney David Fischer asked for the minimum sentence allowed under Pacheco’s plea deal — 10 years and a month — arguing that Pacheco has no prior criminal records, had undiagnosed PTSD from his military service at the time of the incident and has accepted “total responsibility for his actions.”
“The defense submitted 26 letters of support from his family, friends, military commanders, and past coworkers,” Fischer wrote in advance of the sentencing hearing. “The people who know him best confirm that Mr. Pacheco is a devoted family man, and a hard worker.
“A person who is willing to help anyone, and someone who served our country with pride and loyalty. He is described as honorable, selfless, loving, and considerate.”
Pacheco pleaded guilty in July to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and two counts of falsifying records. Aurich pleaded guilty in January 2021 to falsifying records in a federal investigation and began cooperating with prosecutors. She faces sentencing Dec. 12.
The Sept. 15, 2016, incident that led to the guilty pleas by Pacheco and Aurich is part of an FBI probe into allegations of wrongdoing among guards at the prison, with attorneys for some inmates there alleging that guards have planted weapons in inmates’ cells and orchestrated slayings of some inmates.
Pacheco and Aurich were initially charged in November 2020, four years after Price’s death and two years after both guards were fired by the corrections department.
How California inmate died
Court papers do not identify Price as the inmate who died, but a lawsuit filed last month in federal court names Price as the inmate injured after Pacheco yanked his legs out backward while he and Aurich were escorting Price to another cell with another, unnamed officer.
Price, whose hands were handcuffed behind his back, smashed face first into the concrete, breaking his jaw and some teeth. He was taken to UC Davis Medical Center, where he died two days later from a pulmonary embolism.
Prosecutors wrote in court documents that Pacheco immediately “began his campaign to cover up his actions.”
“He falsely told the third officer on the escort that he did not have to write a report as he did not participate in anything requiring him to do so,” prosecutors wrote.
“Notably, the third officer only went on the escort as an ‘extra hand’ because he knew the defendant had other incidents of use of force and he thought it would be safer if he was there to try and stop the defendant from using excessive force. The third officer also wrote a report of the incident accurately describing the defendant’s use of excessive force, but consistent with the defendant’s direction, he did not submit it to their supervisor.
“The defendant also convinced his partner, a more junior officer, Ashley Aurich, to lie in her report to make it look like the defendant’s actions were justified.”
‘Code of silence’ in prison
Prosecutors say that four months before Price died Pacheco was involved in another attack on an inmate and then lied about it.
In that case, Pacheco summoned an inmate to his cell door, told him to open his eyes and look at him, then hit him with pepper spray for the simple reason that Pacheco had decided to “f--- up” the inmate, and then lied about what happened, Anderson said.
“In addition to his false report, the defendant also covered his tracks further by writing Victim 1 up for a violation,” prosecutors wrote, adding that Pacheco was banking on what guards call the “green wall” of silence at California prisons.
“The defendant relied on a ‘code of silence’ with his fellow officers to commit his crimes and he clearly expected to get away with it,” prosecutors wrote. “The officers working with the defendant at CSP Sacramento covered up for one another rather than reporting misconduct.
Safety of convicted guard
Shubb said the case posed a “very difficult decision” for him, with the need to remember the victims in the case but also make certain Pacheco is safe in prison.
“When judges sentence someone to prison, we need to know that they’re going to be safe,” Shubb said. “As the government points out, the whole system depends on the fact that we’ve got to be sure this doesn’t happen.”
Anderson noted that there are many former prison guards, police officers and others serving prison time nationwide, and that the federal Bureau of Prisons will take Pacheco’s case into account in deciding where he serves his time.
Pacheco, who is not in custody, was ordered to report to prison by 2 p.m. on Jan. 10, and Fischer asked that he be recommended for a prison placement as near to Northern California as possible.
“I don’t know if that’s best for his personal safety or not,” Shubb replied.