TRIAL OF 4 IN JAIL SHAKEDOWN TO BEGIN

GALVESTON -- The trial of three former Brazoria County sheriff's deputies
and a private prison employee accused of kicking, shocking and turning a
dog on prisoners is scheduled to begin here Wednesday.

The 12-member jury that will decide whether the four violated prisoners'
civil rights during a chaotic jail shakedown caught on videotape is to be
chosen Tuesday from among a group of 60 people summoned for possible jury
service in the case.

Houston U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt will preside over the case in the
Galveston federal courthouse.

Facing up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines if convicted are
former jailer Robert Percival, 37, of Lake Jackson; former deputies Lester
Arnold, 50, of Vanderpool; and David Cisneros, 39, of Angleton; and a
former Capital Correctional Resources Inc. employee, Wilton David Wallace,
52, of Angleton.

Capital Correctional was the private firm that leased a portion of the jail
when the September 1996 shakedown occurred.

Each of the four is charged with violating the civil rights of former
inmate Toby Hawthorne. Arnold also is charged with two counts of violating
the civil rights of inmates Aaron Giffen and Elvin Logan by using an
electrical stun gun on them. Cisneros was the handler of the dog videotaped
biting some jail inmates.

Testimony in the case is expected to begin Wednesday. The trial is expected
to last about two weeks.

In July, a jury deadlocked after hearing evidence about a separate incident
in which Wallace was accused of violating the rights of inmate Clarence
Fisher by slamming his face into a wall of the Brazoria County Jail.
Wallace faces a second trial of the Fisher case on Oct. 26 in Hoyt's court.