Court officer says prison department corruption probe a sham

By: DAVID KRAVETS - Associated Press | Thursday, January 15, 2004 10:20 PM PST ∞

SAN FRANCISCO -- A promise by the Corrections Department director to investigate whether guards committed perjury in inmate abuse trials "was a sham which high-ranking CDC officials never intended to follow," a court-appointed examiner said Thursday.

The 71-page report by a court-appointed monitor of the department's own internal affairs practices also recommended that a federal judge charge the agency's former director, Edward Alameida, and the department's chief investigator with contempt of court -- a charge that could result in days or months of prison time if proven.

Alameida resigned from the California Department of Corrections last month amid allegations he impeded investigations into allegations that Pelican Bay State Prison guards committed perjury in inmate-abuse federal trials. The Gov. Gray Davis appointee emphatically denied the allegations.

The report to U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said Alameida succumbed to pressure from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the state's most powerful labor union, and shut down investigations of inmate abuse "well before their completion" and lied about it in court.

The agency had promised Judge Henderson two years ago that it would investigate whether guards committed perjury in court when fellow Pelican Bay guards were on trial for abusing inmates. The promise came after Pelican Bay guards Jose Ramon Garcia and Edward Michael Powers were convicted and sentenced to seven and six years in prison, respectively.

Between 1992 and 1996, they solicited inmates to attack child molesters, sex offenders and other inmates they disliked at the maximum-security facility in Crescent City, which houses about 3,200 inmates.

The corrections department, under Alameida's leadership, promised it would investigate and fire guards that committed perjury or were involved in abusing inmates.

That did not happen, the report said.

"The failures of the post Powers investigation are also illustrative of a pattern of conduct in which CDC officials at the highest level demonstrate an unwillingness and inability to investigate and discipline serious abuses of force by correctional officers," wrote John Hagar, the court-appointed attorney who his investigating the department at Judge Henderson's request.

Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles and chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on the California Correctional System, has been a vocal opponent of Alameida. She said the report confirmed what she said she knew all along.

"This report clearly states the Department of Corrections has lost control of its investigative and disciplinary processes," she said.

Alameida said he was "particularly disturbed by allegations that I interfered with an investigation or investigations, allegations I emphatically deny."

He testified in Henderson's court here last month that the CDC started the perjury and abuse probe with about 40 cases targeting Pelican Bay guards and staff, but none of them were deemed worthy of administrative action.

"I didn't shut down any investigation," Alameida testified.

Hagar also recommend that Judge Henderson hand down contempt of court charges against Thomas Moore, a CDC chief investigator who resigned last year. He is accused of hindering the investigations and lying about it in court. Moore could not be immediately located for comment.

Kip Kindel, assistant secretary of the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which oversees the corrections department and other California penal agencies, said the fallout from the investigation is that CDC's internal affairs investigations are now being reviewed by Attorney General Bill Lockyer's staff.

"This is something that the (agency) has made a commitment to restoring public and employee confidence in the employee discipline process," Kindel said.

Kindel said the search was continuing for Alameida's replacement.

Judge Henderson neither set a court hearing nor indicated whether he would follow Hagar's recommendations Thursday.

The executive vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, Lance Corcoran, said the guards' labor union did not lean on the corrections agency in hopes of foiling any perjury investigation.

"We do not support bad cops," Corcoran said. "But we object to investigations we find unnecessary, unwarranted or unfounded."

The case is Madrid v. Rimmer, 90-3094.