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| Fatal beating probe turns to jail officers |
| By Star-Ledger |
| Published: 10/27/2003 |
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Essex County, N.J., officials are investigating the whereabouts of corrections officers when an inmate was beaten to death during what authorities say was a gang initiation Sunday. "Internal affairs is conducting a full-blown investigation" said Frank Giantomasi, the Essex County counsel. Lamonte Gallemore, 19, was beaten to death in the shower area of a cellblock in the North Caldwell annex of the Essex County jail. Gallemore was processed into the jail at 5:45 p.m. last Sunday and found on the floor of a shower room 45 minutes later. Authorities say Gallemore willingly submitted to a "beatdown" by members of the Crips. On Wednesday, 10 inmates were charged in the assault. Yesterday, the county said the investigation is branching into the whereabouts of the officers. Joseph Amato, president of the union that represents corrections officers at the North Caldwell annex, said he talked to his members on duty the night of the incident. "I said, 'Please, was everyone on their posts?'" he recalled. "They said yes." The union, PBA Local 157, has been shaken by the death but Amato said his members followed county policy. "The same way a police officer could not be everywhere in one town, we can't be in every place of the jail," he said. "It's easy for people to think we put them in a cage and to think we check to see if they are breathing. That's not true." Amato said he feared the corrections officers may be used as scapegoats for the incident. Earlier this week, county administrator Joseph Martin, who was out of the country yesterday, said there was a sergeant on duty, an officer watching the gate and two corrections officers on the floor. There was also one officer patrolling the cells. Yesterday, Giantomasi refused to reveal the number of officers on duty because the disclosure could be "a breach of security." During Gallemore's beating, the officers -- several of which were women -- "were in their spots," Amato said. Meanwhile, the county has issued new directives aimed at corrections officers since Gallemore's death. Chairs used by corrections officers to sit down while working were removed, law enforcement sources said, to keep the officers moving through their areas. In the cellblock where Gallemore was killed, officers are now required to check on inmates every 15 minutes -- a stringent policy generally applied to suicidal inmates, they said. Prior to the incident, only night shift officers were required to make periodic checks, looking in on inmates every half hour. Day shift officers were required to check inmates only during the start of shift, the end of shift and at meal times. The policy shift came a day after Roxanne Gallemore, Gallemore's mother, questioned the location of corrections officers. Her son had been in jail for one week after allegedly trying to steal items from an Irvington grocery and punching the store owner. Fearing the rival Bloods gang at the jail in Newark, Gallemore asked to be transferred to the jail annex. Gallemore and two other men, who claimed to be Crips, were transferred Sunday to the cellblock for Crips, county officials say. When he arrived, Gallemore could not prove membership and agreed to a "beatdown," an initiation of beating by gang members, one law enforcement official said. Forty-five minutes later, an officer found him outside the shower area. The initial cause of death is blunt force trauma, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said. The 10 inmates accused in his murder are also charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and solicitation or recruitment to join a gang, the prosecutor's office said. The inmates, all alleged members of the Crips, range in age from 19 to 40. Five are from Newark, four are from Irvington and one is from East Orange. Superior Court Judge Michael Petrolle set their bails from $500,000 to $1 million. According to court records, none of the inmates was in the jail for a violent crime, and only one appears to have a violent past, although three have been arrested with illegal weapons. Five were currently being held on drug charges, two for weapons possession, one for theft and one for an assault that was reduced to a disorderly person offense. The charges for one of the defendants, Mustafa Smith, were not available. |
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