Investigators for the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office issued a biting report yesterday detailing the results of their investigation into a Dec. 1 incident in which sheriff’s deputies used “flash-bang” stun grenades after a jail. disturbance, the Sacramento Bee reports. “This case raises significant questions regarding jail operations and the treatment of inmates,” the report said.The investigation concludes that the evidence is insufficient to warrant criminal prosecution of Sgt. Donald Black, the supervisor in charge that night, or any of the other deputies involved.
Jail deputies in riot gear tossed the grenades into six cells in response to an earlier inmate protest — several prisoners had flooded the floor by clogging their toilets. The flash-bangs were supposed to stun and disorient inmates to ease their removal from their cells. Two inmates were burned when the grenades exploded next to their prone bodies, another inmate’s nose and teeth were broken in a scuffle with deputies afterward, and all six inmates were tightly strapped into “prostraint” chairs for more than two hours. Assistant Sheriff David Lind called the report “a cheap shot at us. The last thing we want to do is get into a pitched battle with the DA. But, the bottom line is, we did our job.” The report cites the sheriff’s authority on the use of flash-bangs, saying: “He stated that the device would burn if it came into contact with a person as it detonates. The device should not be deployed in such as way as to come into contact with a person.”
Link: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14265913p-15078055c.html