Source: Houston Chronicle, page 1
(http://www.chron.com/cgibin/auth/story/content/chronicle/page1/
97/08/21/prison.20.html)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com

Second jailer had conviction over brutality
More questions about judgment in Brazoria Sheriff's Department

By STEVE OLAFSON, Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

ANGLETON A second employee hired by a private corrections firm
to guard Missouri prison inmates was approved for employment even
though he had been convicted of brutalizing a Texas prison inmate
in 1983.

Daryl French was a lieutenant with the Texas prison system when
he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of violating the civil
rights of an inmate who was beaten by guards. He received a 3
month jail sentence as part of a plea bargain with federal
prosecutors in 1987.

The employment of French and another former Texas prison
official, Wilton David Wallace, who was convicted in the same
1983 brutality case, has raised questions about the judgment of
the Brazoria County Sheriff's Department, which approved the
hiring of all employees by Capital Correctional Resources Inc.

After repeated complaints about mistreatment, Missouri prison
officials decided last week to remove the inmates from the
Brazoria County Detention Center. The decision was made after
Missouri officials were provided a videotape of a Sept. 18, 1996,
jail incident in which prisoners were kicked, shocked by stun
guns and bitten by police dogs.

The secondranking officer in the Brazoria County Sheriff's
Department, Chief Deputy Charles Wagner, conceded Monday that
some officers behaved unprofessionally, but he has denied that
any of the treatment constituted brutality.

Since then, no sheriff's officials have made public comments
about the treatment of prisoners, and the FBI has acknowledged it
is going ahead with a fullscale investigation.

Special AgentinCharge Don Clark, in Houston, said Wednesday
that the agency made the decision after talking with the Brazoria
County District Attorney's Office and viewing parts of the 30
minute videotape, which has been broadcast nationally on
television this week.

"The tape, does it bother me?" Clark asked rhetorically. "Yes."

Meanwhile, a civil attorney in Angleton said Wednesday that the
employment of the two former prison officials convicted in the
1983 brutality case will be an issue in lawsuits he plans to
handle for three of the Missouri convicts.

Because French and Wallace pleaded guilty to past crimes, their
hiring by CCRI creates another cause of action in addition to
charges that the inmates' federally protected civil rights were
violated, said Lynn Klement, a civil attorney in Angleton.

Brazoria County will share some of that responsibility if it is
proven the Sheriff's Department approved their hiring, Klement
said.

A topranking CCRI official has said the Sheriff's Department had
final approval of all employees the company hired to guard some
400 Missouri convicts brought to Angleton 11 months ago.

"If you hire a guy that's got this kind of reputation and who's
been found responsible in the past, arguably you shouldn't hire
him again," Klement said.

Otto Hewitt, an Alvin attorney who represents CCRI, Brazoria
County and Wallace in a federal lawsuit filed by Missouri inmate
James Kesler, said in a prepared statement that the inmates'
civil rights were not violated.

"We expect the defendants to be fully vindicated," Hewitt said.

In Kesler's lawsuit, Wallace is named as one of the jail
officials who shocked him on the back of the neck with a stun gun
after officers pounced on his group of inmates while they were
playing cards and watching television.

After a police dog bit him on the leg, Kesler said Wallace
ordered him to "crawl like a snake" on the floor.

"This will be done on a regular basis and get worse each time,"
Kesler quotes Wallace as announcing to the inmates, who were
sprayed with Mace and later stripsearched and ordered to lie on
a concrete floor for two hours.

Kesler said a jail sergeant later told him, "This should have
never happened and wouldn't happen again."

A former CCRI employee at the jail who asked to remain anonymous
described Wallace as a prime force behind the mistreatment of
inmates.

"He would direct it," the former employee said. "The main guy
behind all the abuse down there was Lt. Wallace. It only takes
one bad apple to really screw things up for a lot of people, and
that's basically what you had out there."

State records show Wallace was certified as a jailer Sept. 16
last year the day the Missouri inmates were brought to the
Brazoria County jail and two days before CCRI officers and
sheriff's deputies quelled what has been called a riot by some
and a disturbance by others.

French, according to state records, was certified as a jailer
Dec. 10.

Neither Wallace nor French has returned calls from the Chronicle.

Sheriff's officials have not responded to requests for an
explanation of why French and Wallace were hired. The two men
were among 82 fulltime CCRI employees hired to guard the
Missouri inmates.

About 200 of the inmates returned to Missouri by bus Monday, and
the rest are expected to leave Angleton by week's end.