OFFICER DETAILS VIDEO IN JAIL SHAKEDOWN TRIAL

GALVESTON -- An inmate who was hit and kicked in the groin by jailers
during a 1996 Brazoria County Jail shakedown did nothing to provoke
the actions, a sheriff's lieutenant testified Wednesday.

Inmate Toby Hawthorne also did not deserve to be bitten by a trained
dog whose handler is on trial here, along with two former deputies, on
charges that they violated Hawthorne's civil rights, Brazoria County
Lt. Robert Christopher told a federal jury.

Christopher commanded the six-man emergency response team that played
a major role in a videotape of the shakedown that surfaced a year
after the incident occurred. A team member carried the camera that
recorded the 30-minute tape.

The videotape's discovery resulted in the indictments of former jailer
Robert Percival, 37, of Lake Jackson; deputy and dog handler David
Cisneros, 39; and private prison employee Wilton David Wallace, 52,
both of Angleton. Each of the three is charged with one count of
felony civil-rights violations.

If convicted, they could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison and
a $250,000 fine.

Another former jailer, Lester Eugene Arnold, 50, pleaded guilty
Tuesday to a misdemeanor count of violating Hawthorne's civil rights
by shocking him with a stun gun. He is expected to testify against his
former colleagues as part of a plea bargain.

During a detailed review of the videotape -- including many
freeze-frame and slow-motion intervals -- Christopher said Wednesday
that Hawthorne seemed to be complying with all orders from jailers and
other deputies.

Christopher pointed out scenes in which Wallace appeared to strike
Hawthorne, and Percival appeared to kick him in the groin. Under
questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Williams, Christopher
pointed out instances in which the dog Cisneros held on a leash
appeared to bite Hawthorne on the leg and another inmate on the buttocks.

Christopher said Hawthorne and other Missouri prison inmates who were
being held in the Brazoria County Jail when the shakedown took place
did nothing to warrant the use of force by his team or by jailers who
wanted to search their cells.

At each stop in the videotape, Williams asked Christopher if the
prisoners on the screen were compliant with officers.

"Yes, sir," he repeatedly responded.

At the end of the tape, Christopher said no inmate tried to attack
jailers and none acted aggressively as they were ordered to crawl
along jail floors and later were strip-searched for weapons or other
contraband.

Hawthorne and 450 other Missouri inmates were in their second day at
the jail when the shakedown was conducted, attorneys said. They were
housed in a portion of the jail leased by Capital Correctional
Resources Inc., the private firm that employed Wallace and brought the
prisoners to Texas after many of them rioted and damaged the Crystal
City, Mo., prison.

Although jail commanders told Christopher they had "noncompliant"
Missouri inmates in several multiprisoner cells, and they smelled
burning marijuana in one cellblock, Christopher said his team
encountered no resistance from prisoners. At most, he testified, some
team members put their hands on prisoners who were slow to respond to
shouted orders to lie on the cell floors, he said.

He said he didn't know if the remains of a rolled cigarette butt found
in one cell contained marijuana.

The most serious incident during the shakedown came when a prisoner
trying to follow an order backed into a response team member's
canister of pepper spray and accidentally set it off.

Christopher said the team took a one-hour break outside the jail while
the effects of the pepper spray wore off, then resumed entering some
cellblocks and ordering prisoners to lie on the floor, crawl out and
wait for jailers to search the cells.

Including the break, Christopher said his team was at the jail for
about three hours on the night of Sept. 18, 1996, and observed no
threat of riot or sign of emergency. Cell searches turned up no
weapons or other contraband.

In opening arguments, attorneys for the three defendants told jurors
Tuesday that Percival, Cisneros and Wallace acted legally during the
chaotic shakedown.

"The sheriff's office and the people that worked for CCRI thought that
a jail riot was fixing to happen," said attorney Donald "Tex" Tonroy,
who represents Cisneros. "All of the things these law-enforcement
officers did were done in order to maintain control."

Tonroy said jailers used force on Hawthorne because he didn't follow
orders.

"He's not being a compliant prisoner," Tonroy said. "People in jail in
Texas are generally compliant, but apparently people from Missouri are
not compliant."

Attorney Guy Womack, who represents Percival, said the federal
indictments were unjustified and that jailers and deputies did what
they were supposed to do.

"This is a sad example of the federal government interfering in a
state matter where they had little expertise," Womack said. "These
were not schoolchildren. These were hardened criminals."