Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 Source: Houston Chronicle, page 1 (http://www.chron.com/cgibin/auth/story/content/chronicle/page1/ 97/08/21/prison.20.html) Contact: 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.