Contra Costa ex-inmate says he was beaten in jail

houses mostly gang members and pressed a call button intended to get deputies’ attention, Washington said.

No deputies showed up, Fanaro said, but two gang members entered his cell and asked why he had pressed the call button. A week later, five Norteños beat him for more than 15 minutes in a jail courtyard, the suit says.

Fanaro suffered multiple facial fractures and permanent nerve damage, Washington said.

A surveillance camera is pointed at the courtyard, but there are multiple blind spots that deputies told Norteño members about, according to Fanaro’s lawsuit. There were also supposed to be deputies patrolling a rooftop that overlooks the courtyard, but the suit says there were none.

The suit claims deputies were aware that gang members might attack Fanaro, but did nothing to protect him.

“Everybody who comes here to do their time, the Eighth Amendment affords them the right to have a sentence that is free from cruel and unusual punishment,” Washington said.

The attorney said deputies designated “ambassadors” within the gang unit to receive new inmates and hazed them by restricting privileges usually afforded to people in custody. The deputies were also “complicit” in gang activity at the jail by housing gang leaders together, she said.

The suit also alleges that deputies were less inclined to protect Fanaro, who is Filipino, than the predominantly Latino inmates in his unit.

Sheriff Livingston called the claims ridiculous.

“This attorney’s carefully crafted press conference and sensationalist allegations can be answered in one word: absurd,” he said in a statement.