NASSAU GUARD ADMITS GUILT ROLE IN JAIL BEATING

GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Jan. 4 -- A guard at the Nassau County jail pleaded
guilty today to acting as a lookout last year while two other guards went
into a cell and severely beat an inmate who died in custody a few days
later.

The guard, Ivano Bavaro, 32, also agreed to testify against the two guards,
who face federal civil rights charges stemming from the beating of the
inmate, Thomas Pizzuto, 38, who died on Jan. 13 while serving a 90-day
sentence for driving while intoxicated and other traffic violations.

In a surprise plea, Mr. Bavaro admitted today in Federal District Court in
Uniondale to standing watch outside cell No. 3 in the county jail's
observation tier last Jan. 8 while two other guards entered the cell and
beat Mr. Pizzuto, a recovering heroin addict who investigators say angered
the guards by clamoring for his methadone treatment. The day after Mr.
Pizzuto died, Mr. Bavaro admitted today, he approached another guard and
said words to the effect of, "Nothing happened that day, you got it?"

Mr. Bavaro's lawyer, Edward P. Jenks, said his client changed his plea to
guilty after reviewing some of the evidence expected to be presented at
trial and deciding that the government had "a compelling case against him."

Mr. Pizzuto's death was one of several highly publicized brutality cases
centered on the Nassau County jail that came to light last year. In addition
to pursuing civil rights charges in the Pizzuto case, the United States
Attorney for the Eastern District of New York opened an inquiry to see
whether a "pattern and practice" of civil rights violations existed at the
jail.

Mr. Bavaro's unexpected plea before Judge Jacob Mishler of Federal District
Court to one count of conspiracy and one count of witness tampering was a
serious blow to the defense of the two guards accused of the beating,
Patrick Regnier, 36, and Edward Velazquez, 32. They are to go on trial next
week and face life sentences if convicted. A lawyer for Mr. Velazquez,
Dennis M. Lemke, denied Mr. Bavaro's charges and said he expected the trial
to go forward.

A fourth guard, Joseph Bergen, 47, is accused of preparing a false report
claiming that Mr. Pizzuto was injured when he slipped in the shower.

Guards took Mr. Pizzuto to Nassau Community Medical Center on Jan. 11,
saying he was having "seizures." He died there Jan. 13.

Mr. Pizzuto's father, Rosario Pizzuto, 60, said in January that he heard his
son whisper "two guards did it" from his deathbed. The Nassau County Medical
Examiner's office ruled Mr. Pizzuto's death a homicide, saying it was the
result of a ruptured spleen caused by blunt force injuries.

Although Mr. Bavaro could face up to 15 years in prison, he is expected to
win a more lenient sentence in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors.
"He agreed to testify truthfully and accurately at the trial," Mr. Jenks
said.

But Mr. Lemke, the lawyer for Mr. Velazquez, one of the other accused
guards, questioned Mr. Bavaro's motives and truthfulness. "My client
maintains his innocence," he said. "We can't account for Mr. Bavaro saying
what he said. It's just not true."

Ernest Peace, a lawyer for Mr. Regnier, did not return a call seeking
comment.

Jury selection is expected to begin next week. In addition to Mr. Bavaro,
the government is expected to call on two other corrections officers and six
inmates at the jail as witnesses and partial witnesses, said two lawyers
familiar with elements of the government's case. The government will also
present medical testimony suggesting the location of blows around the
spleen, they said.

Peter J. Neufeld, a lawyer for the Pizzuto family, said the family had mixed
feelings about the guilty plea. "On the one hand, we are grateful that the
federal prosecutors have moved forward aggressively," he said. "On the other
hand, it is a tragedy that for more than a decade complaints of criminal
misconduct among corrections officers at that jail went unheeded."

In the eight years before the death of Mr. Pizzuto, more than 100 inmates
filed notices of claim, the first step toward filing civil suits, alleging
that they were brutalized by guards at the county jail. Just last March a
federal jury found that a Nassau County jail guard had beaten a mentally
retarded inmate with a frying pan or pot back in 1993.

Jail officials have defended their record, noting that even though 106
notices of claim against the jail were filed between 1991 and 1998, that
represents only one for every thousand inmates there.