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The link below includes the video.<br>
c<br><br>
<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/02/CYA.TMP" eudora="autourl">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/02/CYA.TMP</a><br>
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Friday, April 2, 2004 (SF Chronicle)<br>
SACRAMENTO/Video shows beatings of youth/Counselors at Youth
Authority<br>
should be charged, senator says<br>
Mark Martin, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau<br><br>
<br>
Sacramento -- Pushing alleged brutality at the California
Youth Authority<br>
facility into public view, a state senator Thursday distributed to
the<br>
media video footage of counselors at a Youth Authority facility
beating<br>
two wards.<br>
State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, said it was
"foolish" no one had<br>
been prosecuted yet over the violent altercation in Stockton, and
she<br>
called on Attorney General Bill Lockyer press charges against the<br>
counselors. At a press conference in the Capitol, Romero provided
copies<br>
of an internal Youth Authority video and showed the footage to
reporters,<br>
at one point using slow-motion to show one counselor kicking a ward in
the<br>
head.<br>
Romero's move was criticized by a Lockyer spokesman and
Youth Authority<br>
officials, who said she was jeopardizing probes into what happened Jan.
20<br>
at N.A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility.<br>
But Romero said she was tired of talking about problems
inside California<br>
lockups and wanted action. Romero has been a leading legislative
advocate<br>
for prison reform as the state's corrections system faces multiple
legal<br>
challenges.<br>
"At some point we must say enough is enough,"
Romero said. "We've held<br>
hearings; we've read expert reports; we've read court transcripts;
we've<br>
heard the anguished testimony of parents of CYA wards in this very
room.<br>
... To remain silent any longer is to admit our past efforts to reform
and<br>
overhaul youth corrections in California have been hollow
rhetoric."<br>
The video released Thursday - which was shot from a camera
mounted in<br>
Pajaro Hall at the Stockton facility - is grainy and at times out
of<br>
focus. But the tape clearly depicts a brutal encounter involving two
wards<br>
and nearly a dozen Youth Authority employees.<br>
A supervising counselor, Delwin Brown, kneels on the back of
ward<br>
Narcisco<br>
Morales, 21, landing punch after punch to Morales' face. Another<br>
counselor, Marcel Berry, kneels on the neck of 19-year-old Vincent
Baker,<br>
punching Baker and eventually kicking Baker after the ward is
handcuffed<br>
and lying motionless on the floor.<br>
Another counselor fires pepper spray at both wards; yet
another uses a<br>
larger weapon, called a Pepperball launcher.<br>
An internal affairs report on the incident released last
week recommended<br>
charging Brown and Berry with assault and four others involved in
the<br>
attack with filing false reports.<br>
All six employees are on paid leave as the Youth Authority
determines<br>
whether any should be disciplined. So far, however, none faces
criminal<br>
charges.<br>
The San Joaquin County district attorney's office, which has
jurisdiction<br>
over the facility, has declined to prosecute. Jim Willett, an
assistant<br>
district attorney, said Thursday his office concluded the counselors
had<br>
been responding to an attack instigated by the wards.<br>
Willett said one of the counselors had "his face
shattered." Prosecutors<br>
did not believe a jury would convict any of the employees involved.<br>
Romero's calls for prosecution have not changed anyone's
minds, Willett<br>
said.<br>
"We're not re-reviewing the matter," he said.
"Our decision is made."<br>
Lockyer's office is reviewing the case, too, and has the
authority to<br>
file<br>
charges. Romero said she was considering legislation to give the
attorney<br>
general even more power to prosecute such cases.<br>
But a spokesman for the attorney general blasted Romero for
releasing the<br>
video. "This is something that is in a criminal investigation
file," said<br>
Nathan Barankin. "It's a key piece of evidence."<br>
Barankin complained that defense attorneys for the
counselors could use<br>
the public airing of the video in their case.<br>
"There's nothing that a prison guards defense attorney
would like more<br>
that an excuse to move the trial to Fresno," Barankin said.<br>
At least one prominent Bay Area defense attorney called that
complaint<br>
nonsense,' however.<br>
"It's a videotape. It is what it is," said Cris
Arguedas, noting she<br>
could<br>
not think of a how the senator's actions would have a bearing on a<br>
criminal trial.<br>
"It sounds like the agencies that could prosecute this
have been doing<br>
nothing, and Sen. Romero is shining a light on an abuse that needs to
be<br>
corrected," she said.<br>
Romero received the videotape from the Prison Law Office,
the Marin-based<br>
legal group that has filed a class-action lawsuit against the Youth<br>
Authority for inhumane conditions. The release sparked national
interest;<br>
CNN ran portions of the video Thursday.<br>
Romero and Don Spector, executive director of the Prison Law
Office, said<br>
the video clearly showed a case of excessive force. But an official
with<br>
the union that represents most Youth Authority employees who attended
the<br>
press conference Thursday disagreed, saying there was more to the
story.<br>
"I believe the counselors were defending
themselves," said David Darchuk,<br>
who is the chapter president of the California Correctional Peace
Officers<br>
Association at the Chaderjian facility.<br>
Youth Authority executives aren't so sure, however.<br>
Rod Hickman, secretary of youth and adult corrections for
Gov. Arnold<br>
Schwarzenegger, and Walter Allen, director of the Youth Authority,
are<br>
keeping close tabs on an administrative investigation that could
conclude<br>
next week, a spokesman said.<br>
"The secretary and the director have both seen the
video, and they don't<br>
like what they saw," said Tip Kindel, assistant secretary of<br>
corrections.
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