UNION PRESSURE HELPED BLOCK PRISON PROBE, PROSECUTOR SAYS

Brutality: Allegations of Stonewalling Surround the Corcoran State
Investigation.

Sacramento-A code of silence and pressure from the prison-guard union
repeatedly blocked brutality probes at maximum-security Corcoran State
Prison, a Kings County prosecutor testified Tuesday.

Prison officers stonewalled investigations, including the notorious case of
an inmate who said he was deliberately tossed into the cell of a husky
sexual predator who repeatedly raped him, witnesses said.

"(Prison guards) are sworn officers, but they refused to cooperate with the
District Attorney's Office and tell us what has occurred in prison," said
Kings County District Attorney Greg Strickland.

"In every incident we have been involved in, they have refused to speak
unless they have their union representative present," he said. "I can't put
a gun to their head and tell them to talk to me."

He testified Tuesday before a joint legislative hearing investigating
allegations of wrongdoing at Corcoran, in the San Joaquin Valley south of
Fresno.

Corrections Department spokesman Tip Kindel said officers" are legally
entitled to legal representation. Any police officer on the street would be
legally entitled to this representation."

Kindel said the officers' silence was "not a 'code of silence' where they
are protecting one another," but an exercise of their legal rights.

Representatives of the department, the union and the Wilson administration
have denied any allegations of cover-up.