Calif. prison guard's firing over suicide upheld
A state appeals court has upheld the firing of a prison guard who, according to a co-worker, told a suicidal inmate that she should go ahead and hang herself.
After the November 2006 encounter with guard Thomas Norton, the inmate was found hanging from a bedsheet tied to a bar in her cell at the California Institution for Women in Chino (San Bernardino County). Another guard untied the sheet and removed her, and she recovered without injury, the court said.
Norton, a correctional officer at the prison since 1997, denied telling the woman to hang herself, and also denied calling his fellow guard a "rat" and a "snitch" for reporting the incident.
In Tuesday's ruling, however, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Riverside said the accusations were supported by credible evidence, and justified the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's decision to fire Norton.
After the November 2006 encounter with guard Thomas Norton, the inmate was found hanging from a bedsheet tied to a bar in her cell at the California Institution for Women in Chino (San Bernardino County). Another guard untied the sheet and removed her, and she recovered without injury, the court said.
Norton, a correctional officer at the prison since 1997, denied telling the woman to hang herself, and also denied calling his fellow guard a "rat" and a "snitch" for reporting the incident.
In Tuesday's ruling, however, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Riverside said the accusations were supported by credible evidence, and justified the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's decision to fire Norton.
"Peace officers may be held to higher standards of conduct than civilian employees," said Justice Thomas Hollenhorst in the 3-0 ruling.
Norton's lawyer was unavailable for comment. The guard could appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Norton worked in a unit for mentally ill prisoners. The court said his co-worker testified that he heard a woman screaming in her cell late one night, saying she had been hearing voices and was scared of the dark. He said the woman asked Norton to turn on the light in her cell, but he refused.
When the woman said she was going to kill herself, Norton replied, "Go kill yourself, hang yourself," the co-worker testified, according to the court.
Another officer testified that Norton had told him the woman said she was going to hang herself, and that Norton had "jokingly said, 'Go ahead.' "
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. begelko@sfchronicle.com
This article appeared on page C - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/03/14/BAO91NKS1K.DTL#ixzz1pD4G8cof
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