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| Threat letter came from prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/01/2004 |
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Law enforcement officials said last Thursday they are investigating a threatening letter and nontoxic white powder sent to a state senator through a California prison that was home to the "Green Wall," a band of rogue prison officers. The letter to state Sen. Gloria Romero appears to have originated within Salinas Valley State Prison, near Soledad, shortly after Romero's Correctional System Oversight Committee held a hearing on the Green Wall, said California Highway Patrol Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick. Meanwhile, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed two new members to the Board of Prison Terms, which oversees the state's troubled parole system, and replaced the board's chairwoman with his own designee. The letter to Romero, D-Rosemead, threatened her and her family and advised her to abandon her probe of the state's prison system. It was accompanied by a white powder that was found to be harmless. The letter addressed to Romero was sent to an inmate at the Correctional Training Facility at Soledad early this month inside a larger envelope that Helmick said appears to have originated within the nearby Salinas Valley prison. CHP and FBI investigators are convinced the inmate knew nothing about the letter, he said. The letter did not mention the Green Wall, and investigators are trying to determine if it came from an inmate or an employee. A confidential report by state investigators obtained by Associated Press last month said Salinas Valley officers formed the ganglike organization, named after the color of officers' uniforms, to intimidate inmates and fellow employees, and even devised gang-style hand signals and codes. The letter was intercepted at the prison and never reached Romero, who said she would not be intimidated and would continue the committee hearings and her prison visits. Romero said she was told last summer she was the subject of a death threat involving prison gangs, about the time of hearings then. Two witnesses at the January hearing at which the Green Wall was discussed so feared for their lives that they wore bulletproof vests and asked for police protection. |
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