Prison guard quits over cell killing

[madmusic]

By Dennis Welch, Tribune
December 17, 2006
A state prison guard who says she was ordered to move a petty drug dealer into the same cell with a convicted killer — a move that cost the drug dealer his life — says the killing and the way she was treated afterward by supervisors so unnerved her that she quit a short time later.

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=80741

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. Constructive Discharge

Sounds like a good constructive discharge case for a plaintiff's lawyer. Constructive discharge is when the managers make the working conditions so oppressive that the employee quits because they can't stand it.

Also, they did not follow proper procedures, it sounds like.

Just my 2c. worth IMNSHLO.

[valerief]

2. Drug dealers are not insane people. They're just politician wannabes.

So, considering that most politicians are, well, look at our last Congress, then it's probably no great loss.

When politicians change, I'll change my opinion of drug dealers. But I can't wait for January.

[madmusic]

4. You lost me, valerief...

What are you saying?

[valerief]

10. Oops. Holiday cocktail rambling. I don't even understand what I wrote. Sorry. nt

[acmejack]

8. The petty drug dealer deserved to die?

I am sure I am misconstruing what you are attempting to say! I would certainly appreciate your clarification...

[valerief]

11. See #10. Demon rum. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

12. There's more than a little irony in that rant being fueled by alcohol.

Hmmm.



%(@)#&%&ing drug dealers!

[valerief]

13. Yeah, I have a drink maybe 4 times a year. I should know better

than to get on a blog when I do.

[Warren DeMontague]

14. Hey, no worries. Believe me, I've been there.

I was just pointing out that alcohol is a drug, too.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. Two things struck me

The murder victim pleaded not to be put in the cell with Gaston, and yet this was apparently done after the guard mentioned above followed procedures and placed him back in his original cell pending an investigation. No one seems to know how he got there.

Second thing is that they say Gaston, a convicted murderer, was allowed to work on a cleaning crew? Is it a good idea to have someone who is violent work on a cleaning crew?

[madmusic]

5. Maybe he had keys to the city...

Just kidding. It sure looks like a setup. It reminds me of this story:

PRISON
DISCIPLINE

By Mark Arax and
Mark Gladstone
TIMES STAFF WRITERS

FRESNO-Five state correctional officers (prison guards) have been indicted by a special Kings County Grand Jury on conspiracy and other charges stemming from a 1993 rape at Corcoran State Prison by an inmate nicknamed the "Booty Bandit." The five officers, including a lieutenant, were booked at the Kings County Jail Thursday (Oct. 8, 1998) afternoon on a variety of criminal charges, including conspiracy to carry out a sodomy and preparing false reports. The indictments came after a three-month investigation by the state attorney general's office into allegations of planned rapes and cover-ups at the prison between Bakersfield and Fresno.

The Kings County Sheriff's Department identified the five men as Lt. Jeffrey A. Jones, 36; Sgt. Robert Allan Decker, 40; Sgt. Dale S. Brakebill, 33; and Officers Anthony J. Sylva, 35, and Joe Sanchez, 37. The March 1993 rape of inmate Eddie Dillard, a 23-year-old Los Angeles gang member imprisoned for assault with a deadly weapon, had been investigated last year by a state Corrections Department team and the Kings County district attorney's office. Convicted murderer Wayne Robertson had told state investigators that he raped Dillard at the behest of prison staff, in part because Dillard had kicked a female guard at another prison. But because the initial investigation couldn't break what authorities have described as Corcoran's code of silence - no officers would come forward with information about the alleged crime - the matter was dropped. The attorney general's office, which had been told about the case last year by Kings County authorities, decided not to investigate.

Then this July, a story in The LA Times focused on one former guard who gave the newspaper a first-hand account of the rape. Roscoe Pondexter described how fellow officers had transferred Dillard into Robertson's cell, knowing that the 6-foot3, 230-pound prison enforcer would probably rape the small, slender Dillard. In August, after striking an immunity deal with Pondexter, the attorney general's office convened a special grand jury in Kings County and subpoenaed Pondexter, Dillard, Robertson and several officers. There was concern at the attorney general's office that the regular Kings County Grand Jury, known for its conservative, pro-law enforcement bent, would not return an indictment against Corcoran officers, many of whom live in the community. Indeed, last year, that grand jury refused to indict officers in another Corcoran case in which a busload of black inmates were allegedly beaten during a transfer to Corcoran.

http://www.worldfreeinternet.net/news/nws153.htm

[Trillo]

6. How could Gaston stab someone else

and not get the victims blood on himself?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. Oh man, I thought it was a stem cell post

Whew.

[madmusic]

9. It is. Abu Ghraib stems from it...

Graner worked as a Marine military policeman and as a guard at a state prison in Pennsylvania before shipping out to Iraq with the Army reserve. He boasted yesterday about his expertise as a corrections officer, both civilian and military.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/01/16/guard_sentenced_to_10_years_for_abuse_at_abu_ghraib/