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California guards accused of creating prisoner fight club

Prison guards carry convicted rapist Preston Tate from the exercise yard after he was shot in the head and killed during a 1994 prison fight

May 26, 2000
Web posted at: 4:59 p.m. EDT (2059 GMT)

FRESNO, California (CNN) -- A federal trial of eight state prison guards is under way six years after media stories highlighted allegations that the guards set up inmate fights for blood sports.

The guards, all from Corcoran State Prison, are accused of conspiring to violate prisoners' civil rights by failing to protect them from brawls with other prisoners -- brawls that one former guard said were orchestrated by the guards.

Central to the case is the April 2, 1994 shooting death of prisoner Preston Tate. Prison security video showing Tate's shooting shocked the nation and led to the indictment of the guards.

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On the videotape, Tate and a fellow prisoner, both African-American, are attacked by two Hispanic inmates in a small exercise yard. Seconds later, Tate, a convicted rapist on the verge of parole, is shot in the head and killed.

The bullet was fired by guard Christopher Bethea, one of the eight accused of conspiracy. Tate was one of 31 inmates killed or wounded by prison guards at Corcoran between 1989 and 1994.

Federal authorities have said the guards would stage "gladiator day" at the prison. According to those federal authorities, the prison officers and supervisors would gather in the control booth and watch rival gang members fight in the yard below. If those inmates refused to stop, the guards would use that as an excuse to use their weapons.

But guards say that the fights at the prison occurred because there was a war going on between Hispanic and African-American inmate gang members.

Catherine Campbell, a civil rights attorney representing the Tate family, agrees with that point -- the fights were going to occur. "It was a known reality. If those two black inmates went to the yard, as they had to, and they were followed out there by southern Hispanics, there was going to be a fight."

But she claims the guards created the environment for the fights.

"I doubt that it's rehabilitative to compel inmates to fight with one another and then shoot them and kill them," she told CNN in 1995.

Charges came about after a prison guard went to the FBI five months after Tate was killed.

Former guard Richard Caruso was not present when Tate was shot, but he told federal authorities that he learned from a fellow guard that Tate's killing was orchestrated by fellow guards.

"I believe that if I didn't come forward, eventually ... I probably would have shot an inmate and killed an inmate and gotten away with it in that environment. And I didn't want to live with that the rest of my life," Caruso said.

The defendants say they had no idea there would be a fight. Defense attorney Bill Portanova said the prosecutors "have not established anything that any one of these eight men did anything wrong on any day, except to show up for work and implement their policies."

There have been no inmate shootings at Corcoran since the FBI began its investigation in 1994.

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California State Prison, Corcoran (COR)
Federal Bureau of Investigation

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