June 16--The criminal trial of three Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies accused of beating a man and lying to cover up their actions began Tuesday in federal court.
Dozens of potential jurors filed into the downtown Los Angeles courtroom of U.S. District Judge George H. King, who began the winnowing process to select the jury that will decide the fate of the deputies.
Opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys were scheduled to begin in the afternoon.
The case stems from a February 2011 incident at Men's Central Jail, the main facility in a network of detention centers operated by the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. Prosecutors allege that deputies beat Gabriel Carrillo, who had come to visit his brother at the jail, after discovering he was carrying a cellphone in violation of jail rules.
In their reports and statements to investigators, the deputies involved in the arrest said Carrillo had fought with them in a waiting area and needed to be physically restrained. They adamantly denied the man's allegations that he had been handcuffed and then beaten.
Based on the deputies' account, Carrillo faced criminal charges for assaulting law enforcement officers. Carrillo's attorney, however, found evidence that he said showed that Carrillo had suffered injuries on both his wrists consistent with being handcuffed during the struggle. Days before the trial, the district attorney suddenly dropped the charges.
The county later paid Carrillo $1.2 million to settle a civil lawsuit.
Facing trial are deputies Sussie Ayala and Fernando Luviano, and Sgt. Eric Gonzalez, a supervisor at the jail visitor center. All three are accused of using unreasonable force on Carrillo and falsifying records to obstruct justice. Ayala and Gonzalez also face charges of conspiring to violate Carrillo's civil rights.
They have pleaded not guilty.
A federal grand jury initially indicted two other deputies, who pleaded guilty as part of deals they struck with prosecutors. As part of the plea agreements, the deputies have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and could be called to testify at the trial, according to court records.
In the statement he gave prosecutors as part of his plea deal, Noel Womack told prosecutors Carrillo was handcuffed during the beating. He also said he copied another deputy's report of the incident involving Carrillo to make sure his account was in line with those of the other deputies, court records show. He added that he watched as Gonzalez later laid out all the deputies' reports on a table to compare them and "ensure their consistency."
Ayala and Luviano have been relieved of duty pending the outcome of the trial. Gonzalez left the department in 2013.
The case is one of several to arise from a sweeping effort by federal authorities to investigate the Sheriff's Department jails, which have long been dogged by allegations of abuse and corruption.
More deputies face abuse charges in two other cases that are scheduled to follow the current one.
Last year, seven deputies were convicted of obstruction charges and sentenced to prison terms for their roles in allegedly trying to hamper an FBI investigation into the jails. They remain free on bail while they appeal. And a grand jury recently handed down new indictments, leveling obstruction charges against former Undersheriff Paul Tanaka, once the department's second-highest-ranking official, and another top official.
