From the Sun-Sentinel:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cbeating07may07,0,4464869.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
A group of guards at the Broward County Main Jail kicked and stomped on a handcuffed, naked inmate Wednesday night until he was unconscious, according to several inmates who said they witnessed the beating.
The way they whupped on that guy last night was unbelievable. He was naked and handcuffed, lying on his belly, and three guys were still beating on the guy,” said William Brainard, an inmate awaiting trial on charges of exploiting the elderly. “I believe if you get in an argument with a deputy, they have to subdue you. But even after they had him subdued” they kept kicking and hitting him, Brainard said.
“There was so much blood in that room, it looked like a murder scene,” he said.
Five inmates said they saw the detention deputies beat inmate Alvin Bell in a small supply room in cellblock 7A, a room used to strip-search inmates when they return from court appearances.
Fort Lauderdale Fire-Rescue medics responded to the jail and rushed Bell, 30, to the hospital with severe traumatic injuries about 7:40 p.m.
Bell’s lawyer, Maurice Graham, who visited him at Broward General Medical Center on Thursday night, said he was stunned to see Bell’s swollen, bruised face and the cut above his right eye that might need surgery to repair.
“It really looked like a savage beating that got out of control, really out of control,” Graham said.
Bell, who has more than 30 arrests on charges such as drug possession and obstructing officers but only a few convictions for serious crimes, was scheduled to begin trial Thursday on a 1999 charge of stealing a car, Graham said. When the lawyer got to court, he discovered his client was not there. A prosecutor told him Bell had been injured in a fight and would not be in court that day.
“He was looking forward to the trial,” Graham said. “If he beats this, he’s out. Even if he loses it, he’ll probably get out” because he would get credit for time served.
“Why would he go fight with the [guard] when he was happy?” Graham said.
Liz Calzadilla, a Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman, confirmed that an altercation took place between Bell and deputies about 6 p.m. Wednesday but would not give any details, citing ongoing criminal and internal affairs investigations. She did say that three deputies involved in the fight received treatment at Broward General.
The inmates said Bell was in the supply room alone with a deputy with whom he had gotten into a confrontation the day before. None of them knows how the fight started or who threw the first punch because they could not see inside the supply room until other deputies opened the door and rushed in to help. The door stayed open, they said, because the room was too small for all the people who were trying to get in.
They said the beating went way too far, continuing for several minutes after Bell was handcuffed and face down on the floor.
They questioned why that particular deputy was strip-searching Bell in the first place.
They said Bell had been transferred to a different cellblock Tuesday night after exchanging words with the deputy. The inmates said the jail policy would be that a guard in Bell’s new cellblock would search him.
The guard involved in the fight will keep working but was reassigned to another floor pending the outcome of the investigation, Calzadilla said. His sergeant, who according to the inmates took part in the beating, was placed on administrative reassignment until the investigation is complete. And the other two deputies, who rushed to the scene after the fight broke out but who do not work on that floor, will continue to work as normal, Calzadilla said.
Why is this of interest to me, dear journal? Well, for one thing, it was where my brother was warehoused the first month of his time awaiting trial. (See most of my journal from Feb 24, 2004 and onward.)
I’d like to know what the rest of the story is… I’d like to think that there’s some sort of surveillance tape or a psychological history on either the inmate or the guards. Honestly, I don’t trust the testimony of cop or inmate in a situation like this.
