Man accuses deputies of Twin Towers jail attack

Former inmate files $3-million suit, charging that officers struck him and pepper-sprayed him in an alleged sexual assault.

The alleged attack inside the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles began with a simple request for a clean shirt.

But a former inmate told a federal court jury Wednesday that what followed was a degrading assault that ended with Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pepper-spraying his anus and groin.

Alejandro Franco, who was 23 at the time of the alleged 2007 assault, is seeking $3 million, mainly for emotional suffering, in a lawsuit against the deputies.

Two of the three deputies have been relieved of duty with pay. The third is no longer with the department.

The three watched Wednesday as Franco testified that he had just received fresh laundry and was in line for medication when he noticed a foul smell from his pants.

Former Deputy Kris Cordova agreed to replace the pants. But when Franco returned to his cell, he noticed the same stench on his freshly laundered shirt. When he tried to have that replaced as well, he was rebuffed.

“You trying to get over on me,” Franco recalled Cordova saying.

Franco swore at the deputy and returned to his cell. Later that night, around lights-out, Franco testified, Cordova and two other deputies selected his cell for a random search. They cuffed him, Franco said, and he was escorted to an empty recreation room.

There, Franco said, Cordova asked him why he showed disrespect by dropping “the F-bomb” in front of other inmates. Another deputy, Davie Chang, punched him in the face, Franco testified.

When he refused to apologize, Franco said, the deputies hit him repeatedly. He said a third deputy, Anthony Pimentel, stood back, activating his Taser.

Franco said he was flipped onto his belly. Chang, he testified, pulled down his boxers, spread his buttocks and used pepper spray on his anus and genitals. The South Los Angeles man called the incident a sexual assault.

“I felt hollow inside,” Franco said. “I felt as if I wasn’t there.”

The burning lasted through the night, he said.

Gilbert Nishimura, one of the attorneys for the deputies, said his clients are innocent. All three took the stand Wednesday but pleaded the 5th Amendment to all questions.

Felony charges of assault by a public officer are being considered against the three men, said a representative of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The Sheriff’s Department turned over its findings from the incident in 2008, spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

“The sheriff requires deputy sheriffs, especially those in custody, to be the civil rights leaders of that community,” Whitmore said. “Just because someone is in jail doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated with the utmost respect.”

The deputies’ attorneys argued that there is scant evidence to prove the allegations. They also tried to connect Franco’s emotional issues since his time in jail — bouts of depression and antisocial behavior — to a dysfunctional upbringing and drug abuse.

Franco said he often thinks about the alleged assault and has had trouble maintaining motivation or intimate relationships. His attorney, Arnoldo Casillas, blasted the deputies for refusing to answer any of his questions during testimony.

“Cops tell the truth,” he said. “Cops don’t plead the 5th.”

If the jury returns a verdict in Franco’s favor, it’s unclear whether any damages would be paid by the county or the defendants.

By Robert Faturechi, Los Angeles Times

August 26, 2010

Compton gang member suspected of strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate

A Compton gang member already sentenced to life in prison for murder and awaiting trial in a second slaying is being investigated for allegedly strangling his Twin Towers jail cellmate.

Jamar Lavon Tucker, 28, was found Thursday morning inside a two-man cell next to the body of William Levell Hansbrough during a security check at the county jail in downtown Los Angeles, officials said.

Tucker allegedly told deputies that he had just killed his cellmate, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. A coroner’s autopsy determined Hansbrough’s death was homicide by strangulation.

Deputies found Hansbrough, 36, covered with a sheet inside the cell that is part of a gang module. Whitmore said sheriff’s homicide investigators expect to present a case to prosecutors in the near future. According to sheriff officials, Tucker and Hansbrough are part of the “same gang” and were listed as the “same security level” and had shared a cell for more than month before the slaying.

Hansbrough was slated to go to trial next month for felony gun possession and forgery, according to prosecutors.

Tucker was being held at the jail because he is slated to go on trial May 10 for the 2005 murder of Kevin Watts. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Tucker if he is convicted in that case, officials said.

Tucker was convicted two years ago of a murder and attempted murder along with three other men, court records show. During the trial for the April 2005 home invasion robbery and carjacking in Redlands, Tucker pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder. Tucker received a life sentence.

When Redlands police arrested Tucker, they described him as a member of the L.A. gang the 107th Street Hoover Crips who goes by the name “Baby Hoover Ray.” Tucker, along with three other men, carjacked a car restoration expert and then forced him to drive them to his Redlands home.

Once there, the men fatally shot the carjacking victim’s 28-year-old cousin and wounded his 51-year-old mother. They then stole thousands of dollars in cash, according to police. As they drove back to L.A., Tucker shot the carjacking victim, according to authorities. The man faked he was dead and was dumped in Fullerton.

– Richard Winton

Sheriff says mental health cuts burden L.A. jails

May 25, 2010

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca on Tuesday blasted cuts to mental health services in the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, saying they would burden the county’s already overcrowded jails.

Baca estimated that the Sheriff’s Department currently has about 2,500 inmates with mental health problems in its jails, many of them in the Twin Towers facility in downtown Los Angeles. Critics have asserted that the number of mentally ill inmates is much higher, with many landing in Men’s Central Jail, a facility less equipped for mental health care.

Cutting funding to community mental health services would push the mentally ill out of clinics, onto the streets and, for many, eventually into the jails, Baca said.

“Los Angeles County jails are already the largest mental health provider in the country,” Baca said. “The timing of these cuts could not come at a worse time.”

– Robert Faturechi