Authorities are wrapping up a criminal investigation into the role of L.A. County Sheriff's deputies in the alleged beating of a man who had come to visit his brother in jail, the head of the county’s oversight department told NBC LA Thursday.
It’s not clear whether there will be indictments or arrests in the case, but it will likely soon be turned over to prosecutors, who will decide whether to charge the guards in L.A. County’s Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles, said Michael Genacco, head of the county’s Office of Independent Review.
The criminal probe, Genacco said, includes the case of Gabriel Carrillo, who said he was beaten by deputies serving as guards in the jail after they learned that he had brought a cellphone inside.
Earlier this week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to set up an oversight committee to look into allegations of violence in the jails. Supervisor Gloria Molina also called on Sheriff Lee Baca to require guards to wear video cameras.
Excessive force against inmates is an ongoing problem in the jails, said Gennaco, who favors the installation of video cameras in all parts of the facilities to monitor the behavior of both guards and inmates.
“Both deputies and inmates have at times incentives to lie or tell the truth, and video cameras are an evidentiary tie breaker,” Genacco said. “There have been cases where we would not be able to prove excessive force had it not been for the existence of video cameras in some of the jails."
Carrillo’s attorney, Ronald Kaye, said his 5’6” client was taken to a small room at Men’s Central that did not have a video camera in it, where he was beaten until he passed out.
Prosecutors initially charged Carrillo with battery, based on claims from deputies that he had assaulted them after they removed one of his handcuffs, Kaye said. But the charges were later dropped.
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