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| Charges unlikely in beating of young inmates, prosecutors say |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/19/2004 |
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A videotape showing two California Youth Authority employees beating two subdued young inmates isn't enough to support a criminal conviction, San Joaquin County prosecutors have concluded. One of the 19- and 21-year-old wards apparently started the fight by striking one of the employees, and the tape shows just 26 seconds of the approximately minute-long altercation, making it tough to prove the officers exceeded their authority, Deputy District Attorney John Soldati said. That's a switch from what county prosecutors decided in February, when they told Attorney General Bill Lockyer they intended to charge two employees with misdemeanors, Lockyer spokeswoman Hallye Jordan told The Associated Press Thursday. Lockyer determined the earlier decision, and an accompanying decision not to file charges against four other employees, was properly within county prosecutors' discretion, Jordan said. However, Lockyer's office began Thursday reviewing the new decision not to file even the two misdemeanor charges, Jordan said. Soldati acknowledged the video shows one of the employees striking one of the subdued inmates at least 15 times in the head during the Jan. 20 incident at Stockton's N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility. An attorney representing one of the youths said his client was kicked in the head after he was handcuffed prone on the floor. But Soldati said that leaves it open whether the employee was defending himself or overstepped his bounds to punish his attacker. The two employees shown on the videotape are on administrative leave, as are the four other employees during an investigation that may involve whether they acted as lookouts or whether official reports of the incident match what's shown in the video. The second misdemeanor charge would have accused one of the four with filing a false report, the Los Angeles Times reported. San Joaquin prosecutors brought assault charges against the two youths, but the charges were dropped after the two employees on the tape refused to testify. New CYA Director Walter Allen on Wednesday said he thinks the incident merits both administrative and criminal action. |
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