Deputy Arraigned For Alleged Attack On Santa Rita Jail Inmate

DUBLIN, CA —An Alameda County sheriff's deputy was arraigned Friday on two counts of assault for allegedly encouraging six gang members to attack a fellow inmate at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin who the deputy had quarreled with. Joseph Bailey, a 28-year-old Tracy resident who's been with the sheriff's office for three years, was scheduled to be arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court at 2 p.m. but when a large group of reporters arrived at that time a court clerk said he had been arraigned this morning, when no reporters were present, and pleaded not guilty.

District Attorney spokeswoman Rebecca Richardson said the mix-up apparently occurred because arraignments for defendants such as Bailey who aren't in custody are held in the morning and arraignments for suspects who are in custody are held in the afternoon. She said she didn't know why Bailey's hearing was listed as being at 2 p.m. and apologized for the confusion.

Bailey, who's free on $65,000 bail, is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 15 for a pretrial hearing. Tensions arose between Bailey and the inmate who's the alleged victim when the man was moved into a minimum-security unit at Santa Rita on Oct. 24 and refused to participate in a custodial strip search which is required by policy, sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Estep wrote in a probable cause statement.

The inmate eventually cooperated with the strip search but before Bailey escorted him to his cell, he spoke to several inmates in that unit about the man's "behavior and demeanor," Estep said. About 90 minutes later, at about 11:40 p.m. on Oct. 24, a deputy who responded to the man's cell after he was alerted by another inmate
noticed that the alleged victim "was bleeding and had several injuries consistent with being physically attacked," such as having a swollen eye, a fractured nose, lacerations to his bottom lip, above his left eye and
forehead which required him to be transported to an area hospital for medical treatment, Estep wrote.

Before he was hospitalized, the inmate identified several inmates as the people who "punched and kicked him repeatedly" and told the deputy who investigated the incident that he believed he was attacked because he has
family members who are affiliated with a gang that's a rival of the gang that the other inmates are associated with, according to Estep.

The deputy who investigated the incident said Bailey told him, "I told those six guys to take care of him (the inmate victim) and make it look like he fell in the shower" but said he did not want the victim to get beat
up that badly, Estep wrote. Bailey made a voluntary statement in the presence of his lawyer on Nov. 22 in which he acknowledged that he spoke with other inmates before placing the alleged victim in their pod, Estep said.

But Bailey denied telling the other inmates to physically attack the victim and said "his intention was to have the inmates assist the victim," Estep said. Bailey is represented by the Sacramento law firm Mastagni Holstedt. David Mastagni, the firm's founder, said that he doesn't want to talk about the specifics of the case against Bailey, who's charged with assault by a public officer and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury.

Reading a prepared statement about law enforcement officers in general who are charged with wrongdoing, Mastagni said, "District attorneys are zealously overcharging officers up and down the state and charges are
being filed hastily."

Mastagni said, "We are prevailing in these cases - getting acquittals or dismissals throughout the state - and we are confident that we will prevail in his case."

Last Sept. 5, in a separate and unrelated case, three current Alameda County sheriff's deputies and one former deputy were charged with mistreating inmates at Santa Rita by allowing an inmate to throw bodily fluids onto other inmates in a maximum security unit at the jail.

Those four defendants, who are free on bail, appeared in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland today for a pretrial hearing. Judge Yolanda Northridge ordered them to return to court for another pretrial hearing on March 2, at which time their preliminary hearing might be scheduled.

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