Heidi Jones
05-14-2004, 12:57 AM
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/sv/story/8564541p-9421097c.html
Inquiry into prison death turns up little
Corcoran case needs more information to advance, official says.
By Denny Boyles
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, May 13, 2004, 8:41 AM)
The Kings County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday investigators have been unable to find out what happened in the hours before Corcoran State Prison inmate Ronald Herrera bled to death in his cell on Feb. 2.
var printad = "no";printad = "yes";Investigators from the California Department of Corrections and the Kings County District Attorney's Office have been trying for months to reconstruct the events that led to Herrera's death, with little success.
Patrick Hart, chief deputy district attorney for Kings County, said that even after the correctional officers involved were interviewed by a grand jury, he doesn't believe that his office knows precisely what happened. Hart said the grand jury was convened after officers refused to talk to investigators unless they could independently record the conversations.
"In the latter stages of the investigation, we asked our questions in a way that was extremely difficult for the officers involved to refuse to answer," Hart said.
if(printad == "yes") { document.write("
Advertisement
"); OAS_AD("Button11"); document.write("");}
When asked whether that meant the officers had been put in front of a grand jury because they refused to cooperate, Hart said that was "a reasonable interpretation." "There are still some gray areas that remain, however, and unless more information is developed, the case can't move forward.
"This is frustrating in a number of ways. First, if nothing was wrong, this investigation should have only taken two weeks. But here we are three months later with no definite answers. Also, a lot of time was spent on investigations that should never have been necessary," Hart said.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Herrera, 60, pleaded for help for hours but was ignored by officers, some of whom may have been watching the Super Bowl.
A spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union representing the officers, denied that was the case.
"Logistically, it would be impossible to have the coordination between three separate shifts of officers at the prison that would allow a man to bleed to death in his cell. There's no way they coordinated to let this guy die," said the spokesman, Lance Corcoran.
Hart said it was "fairly atypical" to have problems getting information from members of a law-enforcement community. Correctional officers are sworn peace officers.
"The only other time in recent memory that we have had this type of problem also involved correctional officers, and that case resulted in two officers being convicted of assaulting an inmate," Hart said.
Corcoran said the officers involved have done nothing wrong.
"We did not obstruct anything in this case," Corcoran said.
The California Department of Corrections also was investigating the incident, said Margot Bach, a spokeswoman for the department.
While Bach couldn't comment specifically on the Herrera investigation, she said that law enforcement personnel are, and should be, held to a high standard.
"These officers take an oath to obey the law," Bach said.
When told of Hart's belief that the officers involved in the case might not be telling investigators what really happened, Bach said she had no way of knowing what was being said.
"I can't tell you if these officers are telling the truth. But one would hope they were," Bach said.
Inquiry into prison death turns up little
Corcoran case needs more information to advance, official says.
By Denny Boyles
The Fresno Bee
(Updated Thursday, May 13, 2004, 8:41 AM)
The Kings County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday investigators have been unable to find out what happened in the hours before Corcoran State Prison inmate Ronald Herrera bled to death in his cell on Feb. 2.
var printad = "no";printad = "yes";Investigators from the California Department of Corrections and the Kings County District Attorney's Office have been trying for months to reconstruct the events that led to Herrera's death, with little success.
Patrick Hart, chief deputy district attorney for Kings County, said that even after the correctional officers involved were interviewed by a grand jury, he doesn't believe that his office knows precisely what happened. Hart said the grand jury was convened after officers refused to talk to investigators unless they could independently record the conversations.
"In the latter stages of the investigation, we asked our questions in a way that was extremely difficult for the officers involved to refuse to answer," Hart said.
if(printad == "yes") { document.write("
Advertisement
"); OAS_AD("Button11"); document.write("");}
When asked whether that meant the officers had been put in front of a grand jury because they refused to cooperate, Hart said that was "a reasonable interpretation." "There are still some gray areas that remain, however, and unless more information is developed, the case can't move forward.
"This is frustrating in a number of ways. First, if nothing was wrong, this investigation should have only taken two weeks. But here we are three months later with no definite answers. Also, a lot of time was spent on investigations that should never have been necessary," Hart said.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Herrera, 60, pleaded for help for hours but was ignored by officers, some of whom may have been watching the Super Bowl.
A spokesman for the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union representing the officers, denied that was the case.
"Logistically, it would be impossible to have the coordination between three separate shifts of officers at the prison that would allow a man to bleed to death in his cell. There's no way they coordinated to let this guy die," said the spokesman, Lance Corcoran.
Hart said it was "fairly atypical" to have problems getting information from members of a law-enforcement community. Correctional officers are sworn peace officers.
"The only other time in recent memory that we have had this type of problem also involved correctional officers, and that case resulted in two officers being convicted of assaulting an inmate," Hart said.
Corcoran said the officers involved have done nothing wrong.
"We did not obstruct anything in this case," Corcoran said.
The California Department of Corrections also was investigating the incident, said Margot Bach, a spokeswoman for the department.
While Bach couldn't comment specifically on the Herrera investigation, she said that law enforcement personnel are, and should be, held to a high standard.
"These officers take an oath to obey the law," Bach said.
When told of Hart's belief that the officers involved in the case might not be telling investigators what really happened, Bach said she had no way of knowing what was being said.
"I can't tell you if these officers are telling the truth. But one would hope they were," Bach said.