Five lawsuits allege civil rights abuses at West Valley Detention Center
By SHEA JOHNSON
STAFF WRITER
Posted Feb. 16, 2015 @ 3:02 pm
Updated Feb 16, 2015 at 5:05 PM
A federal grand jury is investigating claims of deputy misconduct at West Valley Detention Center nearly a year after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and FBI launched separate probes into possible inmate civil rights violations at the jail.
A joint status report filed in U.S. District Court this month revealed that a federal grand jury, along with federal and local authorities, is reviewing allegations that have suggested particular deputies acted as instigators of abuse while the jail’s top officials enabled them with a lack of oversight.
In a lawsuit filed Jan. 25 — the fifth similar lawsuit filed since May against the jail, its commander Jeff Rose, several deputies and Sheriff John McMahon — lawyers for inmate Eric Smith, a jail food server, contend that deputies repeatedly stunned Smith with a Taser for no reason on multiple occasions and subjected him to psychological torture and sleep deprivation.
The suits have painted alleged misconduct at the jail as systemic, a claim that seeks to undermine McMahon’s insistence that problems are connected to an “isolated group of deputies.”
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McMahons fires a nurse who refused to violate the laws governing inmate medical issues. Now he would like us to believe the civil rights violations are just a couple bad apples. McMahon is rotten to the core. The FBI should be seeking out this nurse and others. The lawyers suing are on their mark.
Mcmahon’s leadership style is look the other way. He never was nor is a leader. I guess when he gets sued personally and has to put the Idaho plates back on his vehicles he we learn.
Maybe James Ramos can help McMahon in the jails. Oops he did.
Integrity starts at the top. McMahon is lost.
If any Deputy at SBSD is subjected to a termination for dishonesty, just point out the fact that Eddie Stark is still working, and he has multiple priors during testimony.
SEBA and all their useless asses STILL aren’t pointing that out to members. Let me help you SEBA.
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Where is Grant Ward and his inspirational ” members need to come together” to solve the problem?
Same song from a year ago. The song never hit the top 100 chart.