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| Ex-officer sentenced to prison |
| By Philadelphia Inquirer |
| Published: 08/25/2003 |
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A former Philadelphia correctional officer was sentenced yesterday to 15 months in prison for his part in the severe beating of inmate Donti Hunter. Cornell Tyler - the last of three prison officials convicted in the 1999 beating to be sentenced - chose to say nothing before U.S. District Judge William H. Yohn Jr. 'This case is really like the other two: a good person who did a bad thing on this particular day,' said Yohn, referring to his earlier sentencings of former Officer Reginald Steptoe and Glen Guadalupe, deputy warden of the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility at the time of the Hunter beating. And, as with the others, the judge departed significantly from the recommended 53- to 78-month prison term under federal sentencing guidelines for Tyler. Yohn granted reductions for the same reasons: that Tyler will be especially vulnerable as a former prison officer serving time; that Hunter played a role in precipitating the incident that ended with his beating and hospitalization; and that Tyler's conduct was an aberration from an otherwise law-abiding life marked by community and charitable works. Defense attorney Mark E. Cedrone urged Yohn to depart even further so Tyler could serve his term at a community center or under house arrest. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Wzorek argued for the need to deter other officers from beating inmates. Hunter, 23, a convicted West Philadelphia drug dealer serving a 10-year prison term, was beaten at Curran-Fromhold on March 11, 1999, in a confrontation after Steptoe found marijuana while searching his cell. Hunter grabbed the drug and ran to another cell, locked himself in, and began flushing it down a toilet. When Steptoe unlocked and entered the cell and tried to handcuff the 6-foot, 2-inch, 230-pound inmate, Hunter punched him in the eye. Hunter, 23, was hospitalized for several days after the beating and was given 19 stitches to close cuts in his scalp and face. Last year, the city agreed to pay Hunter $125,000 to settle the civil-rights suit he filed after the beating. Hunter was released from prison last year. Tyler, 41, testified at trial in April 2002 that he entered the cell to help Steptoe subdue and handcuff Hunter. He said he punched Hunter several times with a closed fist and shot him in the eyes with pepper spray but insisted he used the force needed to subdue the struggling inmate. Steptoe, 40, was sentenced July 31 to 30 months in prison, a sentence longer because of the jury's finding that he used a pair of handcuffs to hit Hunter in the face, causing the most severe injuries. Guadalupe, 41, the youngest warden in Philadelphia prison history and once one of the system's most promising administrators, was sentenced Aug. 7 to 15 months for his obstruction-of-justice conviction. The jury found that Guadalupe ordered prison officers to block the probe of Steptoe and Tyler because they were valued former members of an elite prison team he had created. Both Steptoe and Guadalupe have appealed their convictions to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and Cedrone said Tyler would do the same. |
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