Even as a sergeant shouted, "Stop hitting him! Stop hitting him!," Deputy Marcos Stout continued punching an inmate in the head. Then, with the inmate on the concrete floor, Stout landed his knee on the man's skull.
Lawyers for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department described the deputy's actions as "callous and brutal behavior toward a helpless and unresisting person."
Though Stout's excessive force was egregious enough to get him fired, prosecutors did not charge him with a crime — but not because they concluded that the violence wasn't criminal, according to interviews. They never knew about it.
In several cases in recent years, deputies who were disciplined or even fired for abusing inmates escaped criminal scrutiny because Sheriff's Department officials chose not to give the evidence to the district attorney's office, opting to handle the cases internally.
Law enforcement experts interviewed by the Los Angeles Times said the department should routinely conduct criminal investigations of brutality claims and forward the results to prosecutors to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
"Just because you're part of the Sheriff's Department doesn't mean you can commit battery with impunity," said Dennis Kenney, a former Florida police officer and current professor studying police use of force at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
The Sheriff's Department's watchdog recommended in October that excessive force complaints from the jails be investigated for criminal wrongdoing and presented to the district attorney. Michael Gennaco, who heads the county's Office of Independent Review, told The Times that the department should send to prosecutors all investigations of excessive force in which an inmate suffered significant injuries or the force was prolonged.
At the request of The Times, Gennaco identified cases in which the department fired or suspended deputies for using excessive force but did not formally present the evidence to prosecutors. Among the cases:
— A deputy was fired for putting his hand around the throat of an inmate who had smirked at deputies, pushing him into a glass window and throwing him to the ground. The deputy then claimed the inmate had fallen accidentally and asked another deputy who had witnessed the incident to corroborate his story.
— Deputies reported that one of their colleagues used unreasonable force on an inmate who had assaulted him. They said he delivered multiple elbow strikes while the inmate appeared to be unconscious and bleeding profusely from his head. The inmate suffered serious injuries, including brain swelling, and required surgery. The deputy was fired.
— A security camera recorded a deputy throwing an object at an inmate then rushing toward him and pushing him against the wall, with the deputy placing his forearm into the back of the inmate's head. The deputy never reported the force and neither did eight other deputies who witnessed the incident. The inmate's injuries were minor, Gennaco said. Nevertheless, the deputy was suspended; Gennaco's report does not say for how long.
Public scrutiny of the jails intensified after The Times reported in September that the FBI is investigating allegations of inmate abuse and other jailer misconduct. The U.S. attorney's office has demanded a large number of documents on deputies and others working in the jails, including reports of force used on inmates, since 2009. Confidential documents reviewed by The Times show that jail managers were raising alarms about excessive force and shoddy internal investigations two years ago.
Sheriff's Department Cmdr. James Hellmold, part of a task force recently assembled to implement jail reforms, said custody supervisors weigh whether force by deputies was unnecessary and excessive before deciding whether to refer the matter to internal criminal investigators.
Cases in which force was appropriate but a deputy used too much or used force for too long are generally reviewed for discipline, not criminal charges, he said. The department also reviews whether the violence was provoked by the inmate before deciding whether to conduct a criminal probe.
"Most of our uses of force, even when they're inappropriate, are provoked by the inmate," Hellmold said. "That's the reality of the job."
Sheriff Lee Baca said conducting criminal investigations of excessive force can delay imposing workplace discipline. But he acknowledged that the department should forward evidence to prosecutors when deputies are fired or suspended for using too much force. He said it was "a mistake" not to have done so in the past.
"If we think we're going to fire somebody and believed they used excessive force, it should also be sent to the D.A.'s office," he said. "Let the D.A. make the determination."
