By C1 Staff
SAN FRANCISCO — Four deputies have been accused of staging gladiator-like fights between inmates and gambling on the outcomes.
CBS News reports that the ringleader was Deputy Scott Neu, who was accused in 2006 of forcing inmates to perform oral sex on him. The case was settled out of court three years later.
One inmate describes the fights in a complaint:
“…while I’m incarcerated, Deputy Neu made me fight another individual that we’re – we’re housed in the same tank. He made us fight. We had like two fights already. It’s like, uh, he would make us go to like a – like a (inaudible) to where nobody can see, and he would make us just wrestle and fight each other to his own entertainment.”
Inmates said they were threatened with beatings, handcuffing, or pepper spray if they didn’t participate. At least one inmate was left with a cracked rib after a fight.
The accusations were originally going to be made public once the inmates were out of custody, but Public Defender Jeff Adachi’s office learned that another fight was scheduled for next week, pushing them to make their accusations earlier.
Adachi requested that Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi “take immediate action and at a minimum, remove the deputies involved from any position where they have any contact with prisoners, including the clients they have harmed.”
Mirkarimi said he will ask the U.S. Department of Justice for assistance in an investigation to determine whether such a culture exists in his department.
The inmates involved in the accusations have been moved to another facility.