By Amy L. Edwards
Orlando Sentinel
Putting Richard Delano in a prison cell with John McCullah was likened to putting a sheep in a cage with a wolf.
And the corrections officer who prosecutors say should have known better -- charged with violating Delano’s rights by arranging to have him killed -- faced her jury Monday in federal court.
During opening statements, prosecutor Douglas Kern painted defendant Erin Sharma, who worked at the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, as an officer who hated prison snitches and wanted revenge against Delano.
Kern told jurors about a day in early 2005 when Delano grabbed Sharma’s arm through the food slot of his cell, causing her to suffer bruising. The prosecutor said Sharma responded by issuing a warning to Delano: “You’re a dead man.”
Sharma, who sat between her defense lawyers during the proceedings before Senior U.S. District Judge Patricia C. Fawsett and a packed courtroom, faces two counts of violating civil-rights laws. If convicted, she could face life in prison.
After the confrontation between Delano and Sharma, the prosecutor said, Sharma conspired with another corrections officer to move Delano into a cell with McCullah. A notoriously violent criminal nicknamed “Animal,” McCullah assaulted every cellmate he had.
Sharma and her fellow correctional officer told their supervisor Delano wanted to be housed with McCullah, and the lieutenant approved the move.
Kern said Sharma told McCullah to assault Delano when she wasn’t working. When McCullah asked about killing Delano, Sharma reportedly told him not to do that, “just break his leg.”
On March 1, 2005, Sharma’s co-conspirator moved Delano into McCullah’s cell.
Days after the transfer, McCullah badly beat Delano. Kern said Sharma wasn’t working that day -- she called in sick, though she was actually vacationing in Panama City.
Delano lapsed into a coma and died March 17, 2005, court records show.
Defense attorney Michael Nielsen told the jury Sharma is not guilty. He noted it was three years after Delano died that Sharma was indicted.
Nielsen said the defense thinks Delano repeatedly asked to be moved into a cell with McCullah. And despite being so notoriously violent, Nielsen said, there was no formal order keeping McCullah apart from Delano.
Nielsen told jurors to be wary of what the government’s witnesses -- particularly inmates -- will say while in court. He told them the government has the ability to request prison sentences be reduced.
“They are motivated by one thing and one thing only: Get me out of here,” Nielsen said of prison inmates who may testify in the case.
Prosecution of law-enforcement officers for federal civil-rights violations is not uncommon.
Earlier this month, former state corrections officer Paul Tillis was sentenced to three years in prison on a civil-rights violation related to assaulting an inmate at the Florida prison in Raiford.
Tillis poured scalding water onto an inmate’s chest, according to the Justice Department. The inmate suffered second-degree burns, and evidence showed Tillis failed to arrange medical care for the inmate.
In 2008, U.S. Attorneys across the country in coordination with the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division charged 81 law-enforcement officers with civil-rights violations.
So far this year, 53 law-enforcement officers have been charged nationwide, according to the Justice Department.
Copyright 2009 Sentinel Communications Co.