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| Sheriff's deputy beat handcuffed inmates |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 04/18/2005 |
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A L.A. sheriff's deputy beat two handcuffed inmates, and his supervisor tried to help cover it up, prosecutors told a federal jury Tuesday. Deputy Abel Jimenez, 32, and Senior Deputy Phalance Burkhalter, 38, were indicted by a grand jury last September on charges of conspiracy and witness tampering stemming from two alleged assaults on suspected gang members in 2001 in the sheriff's inmate reception center. Jimenez also faces two counts of using his authority to deprive inmates of their rights. Prosecutor Barry Williams said during opening statements Tuesday that Burkhalter told the inmates to claim other inmates had assaulted them. "That these men were associated with gangs does not give Abel Jimenez the right to abuse them," Williams said. Jimenez allegedly forced an inmate to the ground and punched him on Nov. 28, 2001, and did the same to another inmate on Dec. 31, 2001. In both cases, a federal indictment said, Burkhalter tried to prevent the inmates from reporting the assaults. Defense lawyer Edward Rucker said Jimenez was never disciplined by the sheriff's department in more than a year on the job or the two years he worked as a civilian officer at the jail. Vicki Podberesky, Burkhalter's lawyer, described him as an officer unlikely to abuse inmates. |
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