EX-STATE PRISON GUARD ACCUSED OF RIGHTS VIOLATION

Courts: But the man's lawyer says his client,who had shot an inmate,was
cleared by a review board.

San Francisco-A former guard at Pelican Bay State Prison was charged
with a civil-rights violation for shooting an inmate in 1994.

The lawyer for David G. Lewis responded Wednesday that his client was
cleared by a prison review board shortly after the shooting.

The board, which consisted of Pelican Bay officials and wardens from
other state prisons, found that Lewis followed Corrections Department
policy when he fired a shot to break up a fight, attorney Robert Noel
said.

Lewis, 51, of Crescent City was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand
jury on charges of depriving prisoner Harry Long of civil rights, and
using a gun in a violent crime.

Long was wounded in the chest during a fight in a yard at the
maximum-security prison in June 1994. Lewis is accused of shooting him
intentionally.

The indictment did not describe the incident. But Noel said Long was
attacked by another prisoner, Tommy Willis, who heard that Long had
been threatening him. According to other guards at the scene, the two
men responded to guards' shouts to get down, but Long then rose,
started swinging at Willis and made what appeared to be stabbing
motions, Noel said.

He said another guard fired a warning shot, and then Lewis aimed at
Long and shot him in the chest with the .223-caliber standard military
cartridge then used by guards. Department policy, recently repealed,
allowed guards in 1994 to fire shots to break up fistfights.

Lewis was fired from his job in 1996. According to state Personnel
Board records, he was alleged to have routinely used racial epithets
against prisoners, and once announced over the prison public address
system that an inmate was a convicted child molester who should be
attacked.

He now drives a truck, Noel said.

U.S. Attorney Robert Mueller said the indictment was part of an
ongoing civil rights investigation by state and federal agents at
Pelican Bay.