Feb. 10--Federal prosecutors Tuesday struck a deal with two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies that allows the men to avoid a second trial on charges they used excessive force on a jail inmate.
Joey Aguiar and Mariano Ramirez were accused of unjustly beating the handcuffed inmate and then lying about it.
Their trial concluded this month with a mixed verdict. Jurors convicted the deputies of writing false reports about the February 2009 incident, but failed to reach a unanimous decision on whether the force the men used was justified. Ten of the 12 jurors were in favor of convicting the deputies on the charge.
The deputies were also acquitted of conspiring with each other to deprive the inmate, Bret Phillips, 44, of his civil rights.
Despite an announcement last week that they intended to retry the deputies on the excessive force count, prosecutors quietly approached the deputies' attorneys with the agreement, which both sides signed and filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Under the terms of the deal, prosecutors dismissed the outstanding count. In exchange, the deputies gave up their right to appeal their convictions on the false statements.
Federal sentencing guidelines suggest the men will receive prison sentences ranging from 21 to 27 months, according to the agreement. If U.S. District Judge Beverly Reid O'Connell delivers sentences outside that range, the deal allows either side to appeal the judge's decision.
O'Connell scheduled a hearing on the agreement for Wednesday morning, although it did not appear from the wording of the deal that it requires the judge's approval.
In deciding to make the deal, officials in the U.S. attorney's office weighed the possibility of winning or losing at a second trial against putting Phillips and other witnesses through the "traumatic experience" of testifying again, said Mack Jenkins, one of the two prosecutors who tried the case.
Jenkins added that the agreement means the case will be resolved far more quickly than if the deputies had filed appeals, which can take years to be decided.
Ramirez's attorney, Vicki Podberesky, said Ramirez decided to make the deal "with very mixed emotions."
As a father of two young children, Ramirez "just did not feel he could go through another trial with the possibility of a conviction," she said. "On balance, we felt it was the right thing to do."
Aguiar's lawyer declined to comment.
Prosecutors argued during the deputies' trial that Phillips had done nothing to justify the assault. They tried to portray Aguiar and Ramirez as angry and bent on punishing the inmate for acting out. Phillips, they said, posed no serious threat since his hands were shackled to a chain around his waist throughout the beating.
Defense lawyers presented a sharply different story, saying the deputies used necessary force to subdue Phillips after the inmate attempted to attack Aguiar.
The deputies acknowledged in internal department reports they wrote at the time that they repeatedly punched Phillips, struck him with a flashlight and pepper-sprayed him in the face. They said Phillips had attempted to head-butt Aguiar and continued to struggle after being pinned on the ground.
Discrepancies between medical records that showed Phillips suffered minor injuries and dramatic accounts of a brutal beating from the prosecution's witnesses were troubling to the two jurors who refused to vote guilty on the excessive force charge, the jury forewoman said in an interview after the verdict.
Nonetheless, the jurors concluded that the reports Aguiar and Ramirez submitted about the violent encounter, which mirrored each other verbatim in several parts, did not accurately reflect what occurred, the forewoman said.
Both Aguiar and Ramirez were relieved of duty years ago and were not paid as they awaited trial, the Sheriff's Department said.
Their employment status in light of the agreement was not immediately clear, but felony convictions typically lead to law enforcement officers being fired or resigning.
joel.rubin@latimes.com
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