IT'S A LONG ARTICLE BUT WORTH READING AS IT OFFERS AN INSIGHT INTO CORRUPT OFFICERS IN THE CDC.
This story is taken from News at sacbee.com.
Prison official under a cloud
Folsom associate warden is accused of getting too chummy with inmates.
By Andy Furillo -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published May 23, 2004)
The associate warden accused of failing to prevent the April 2002 Folsom State Prison riot that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the federal government to investigate had a history of helping out the inmate faction that started the melee.
Michael D. Bunnell was fired and criminally prosecuted in 1992 after investigators at Deuel Vocational Institution, pursuing rumors of inmate drug rings, recorded Bunnell fraternizing on the telephone with inmates.
"Hey, my hero," Bunnell, then chief deputy warden at the Tracy prison, said in a conversation with inmate Gilbert Tewksbury.
Tewksbury was no ordinary hero. A convicted murderer, he has been identified by prison authorities as an associate of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, aligned with the "southern Hispanic" prisoners that launched an attack on rivals in the Folsom riot.
"Hey, como está, señor? (How are you, sir?)," Tewksbury responded.
Bunnell's taped conversations with Tewksbury and other inmates at Deuel, obtained by The Bee in Sacramento Superior Court records, touched off a joint California Department of Corrections and state attorney general's investigation.
The state probe found that Bunnell had impeded an investigation into inmate heroin dealing, removed derogatory information from the file of a murderer up for parole, condoned prisoner beatings of child molesters and arranged for an outside cosmetic dental appointment for Tewksbury so the inmate could acquire, in the convict's words, "a Hollywood smile."
But when a state appellate court found that investigators had improperly recorded the tapes, the case against Bunnell disintegrated. The criminal charges were dismissed and the State Personnel Board ordered the Department of Corrections to reinstate him - with $270,000 in back pay.
Bunnell, 55, now drives a pale blue 1998 Chevy pickup truck with chrome rims, tinted windows and a vanity license plate that reads, "THNX CDC."
Bunnell returned to work as an associate warden at Folsom State Prison. And, two years ago, he was involved with a decision that allowed a faction of inmates - linked to the same inmates he was accused of favoring at Deuel - to launch an attack on their rivals, according to both a state Office of the Inspector General's investigation and a lawsuit filed by a correctional officer who helped put down the fight.
Twenty-four inmates and the officer who filed the suit were injured in the April 8, 2002, melee. The inspector general's investigation of the fight led to the dismissal of Warden Diana Butler.
No disciplinary action was taken against Bunnell, even though the inspector general said the associate warden seemed to have missed a chance to stop the riot before it started.
Injured officer is suing
Since then, the governor has called for a U.S. attorney's probe into the fight. And Patrick O'Dea, the correctional officer who suffered a herniated disc in the riot, has filed a lawsuit against Bunnell, claiming that Bunnell and two other officers orchestrated the attack.
Though the Department of Corrections and the two other officers also were named in the suit, O'Dea blames Bunnell. O'Dea claims in the suit that the events at Folsom were directly connected to the prison official's performance a decade earlier at Deuel.
The Sacramento Superior Court lawsuit charges that Bunnell "was beholden to organized criminal interests" as a result of his association with the Mexican Mafia prison gang members at Deuel in the early 1990s. It says that at Folsom, "Bunnell allowed the riot to occur for the benefit of a certain specific gang's desire for retaliation."
"Talk about a case of the fox and the henhouse," O'Dea said in an interview.
Bunnell, a 28-year employee of the prison system and son of a retired warden, filed a workers' compensation claim earlier this year and is on paid leave, according to a Department of Corrections spokesman. Sources identified stress as his disability.
Bunnell declined to be interviewed for this story. Sacramento attorney, M. Bradley Wishek, who helped Bunnell beat the criminal case, said that Bunnell did nothing wrong at either Deuel or Folsom.
"I see this effort to take some very old, baseless, unfounded allegations and find some connection or conspiracy to this new problem to be the product of a number of disgruntled individuals who have their own agenda," the attorney said.
Wishek identified Max Lemon, another Folsom associate warden at the time of the riot, as Bunnell's chief accuser. Lemon alerted the inspector general to management's handling of the Folsom riot and its aftermath. He since has been transferred to Department of Corrections headquarters.
When contacted by The Bee, Lemon laughed at the accusation that he had an agenda. "What would my agenda be?" Lemon said. "I have absolutely no agenda but to put the truth out."
Favoritism dangerous
Prison administration experts and inmates' rights advocates say it is crucial for prison officials to maintain open lines of communication with convicts - and develop informants, as Bunnell said he was doing - in order to manage the institutions.
But the experts say few things create more danger inside an institution than officials who show outright favoritism toward certain inmates or groups. Such relationships create resentments among rival inmate groups and leave the prison employee subject to blackmail.
"It could compromise the security of the entire institution," said former Corrections director Cal Terhune.
At Deuel, documents and exhibits from Bunnell's State Personnel Board case, as well as from his criminal and civil cases, portray a prison official who had become dangerously close to segments of the inmate population.
For Tewksbury, Bunnell was accused of arranging an outside dental visit - at a cost to taxpayers of $1,835 - so the inmate could get a cosmetic gold crown.
For Richard Allen Barker, an ex-Hell's Angel incarcerated in 1975 for the murder of two fellow motorcycle gang members, Bunnell was accused of extracting a memo from the inmate's file - just before his parole hearing - that implicated him in the slaying of a prisoner.
For Ralph Gilbert Miranda, imprisoned for burglary and robbery, Bunnell was accused of instructing prison investigators not to search the inmate's cell even though Miranda was suspected of dealing heroin; a subsequent search, however, turned up assorted items of contraband in the cell, including an associate warden's television set.
According to internal Corrections documents obtained by The Bee, Tewksbury is a "validated associate" - a confirmed member - of the Mexican Mafia prison gang.
Miranda, re-imprisoned for 25 years to life since his release from Deuel on a third-strike methamphetamine conviction, is Tewksbury's brother-in-law.
Barker was identified in court and investigative documents as a "white shot caller," or leader, at Deuel, whose Anglo ethnicity aligned him with the Mexican Mafia-influenced "southern Hispanics" in the prison subculture.
The three inmates all remain in California prisons.
Members of Deuel's Investigative Services Unit - a squad of officers that probes inmate criminal activity inside prison walls - said in declarations filed in Bunnell's Personnel Board case that they first noticed in 1991 "a system of growing reliance" between Bunnell - along with another associate warden - and Tewksbury, Miranda and Barker.
Bunnell admitted that the three inmates were his informants and that he gave them preferential treatment such as attractive job assignments and, in Barker's case, a cell of his own, according to Bunnell's termination papers filed by the Corrections Department with the Personnel Board in July 1992.
The special treatment didn't end there, either, according to one Deuel investigator.
In a December 1992 sworn declaration filed with the Personnel Board, the investigator said his team "began to develop information" that Miranda and Tewksbury "were suppliers of heroin within the prison." They said Bunnell frustrated their efforts to investigate Miranda.
On one occasion, investigators said, Bunnell scratched Miranda's name off of a cell-search list. On another, they said they learned that Bunnell told staff with drug-sniffing dogs to stay away from Miranda.
This story is taken from News at sacbee.com.
Prison official under a cloud
Folsom associate warden is accused of getting too chummy with inmates.
By Andy Furillo -- Bee Staff Writer - (Published May 23, 2004)
The associate warden accused of failing to prevent the April 2002 Folsom State Prison riot that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants the federal government to investigate had a history of helping out the inmate faction that started the melee.
Michael D. Bunnell was fired and criminally prosecuted in 1992 after investigators at Deuel Vocational Institution, pursuing rumors of inmate drug rings, recorded Bunnell fraternizing on the telephone with inmates.
"Hey, my hero," Bunnell, then chief deputy warden at the Tracy prison, said in a conversation with inmate Gilbert Tewksbury.
Tewksbury was no ordinary hero. A convicted murderer, he has been identified by prison authorities as an associate of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, aligned with the "southern Hispanic" prisoners that launched an attack on rivals in the Folsom riot.
"Hey, como está, señor? (How are you, sir?)," Tewksbury responded.
Bunnell's taped conversations with Tewksbury and other inmates at Deuel, obtained by The Bee in Sacramento Superior Court records, touched off a joint California Department of Corrections and state attorney general's investigation.
The state probe found that Bunnell had impeded an investigation into inmate heroin dealing, removed derogatory information from the file of a murderer up for parole, condoned prisoner beatings of child molesters and arranged for an outside cosmetic dental appointment for Tewksbury so the inmate could acquire, in the convict's words, "a Hollywood smile."
But when a state appellate court found that investigators had improperly recorded the tapes, the case against Bunnell disintegrated. The criminal charges were dismissed and the State Personnel Board ordered the Department of Corrections to reinstate him - with $270,000 in back pay.
Bunnell, 55, now drives a pale blue 1998 Chevy pickup truck with chrome rims, tinted windows and a vanity license plate that reads, "THNX CDC."
Bunnell returned to work as an associate warden at Folsom State Prison. And, two years ago, he was involved with a decision that allowed a faction of inmates - linked to the same inmates he was accused of favoring at Deuel - to launch an attack on their rivals, according to both a state Office of the Inspector General's investigation and a lawsuit filed by a correctional officer who helped put down the fight.
Twenty-four inmates and the officer who filed the suit were injured in the April 8, 2002, melee. The inspector general's investigation of the fight led to the dismissal of Warden Diana Butler.
No disciplinary action was taken against Bunnell, even though the inspector general said the associate warden seemed to have missed a chance to stop the riot before it started.
Injured officer is suing
Since then, the governor has called for a U.S. attorney's probe into the fight. And Patrick O'Dea, the correctional officer who suffered a herniated disc in the riot, has filed a lawsuit against Bunnell, claiming that Bunnell and two other officers orchestrated the attack.
Though the Department of Corrections and the two other officers also were named in the suit, O'Dea blames Bunnell. O'Dea claims in the suit that the events at Folsom were directly connected to the prison official's performance a decade earlier at Deuel.
The Sacramento Superior Court lawsuit charges that Bunnell "was beholden to organized criminal interests" as a result of his association with the Mexican Mafia prison gang members at Deuel in the early 1990s. It says that at Folsom, "Bunnell allowed the riot to occur for the benefit of a certain specific gang's desire for retaliation."
"Talk about a case of the fox and the henhouse," O'Dea said in an interview.
Bunnell, a 28-year employee of the prison system and son of a retired warden, filed a workers' compensation claim earlier this year and is on paid leave, according to a Department of Corrections spokesman. Sources identified stress as his disability.
Bunnell declined to be interviewed for this story. Sacramento attorney, M. Bradley Wishek, who helped Bunnell beat the criminal case, said that Bunnell did nothing wrong at either Deuel or Folsom.
"I see this effort to take some very old, baseless, unfounded allegations and find some connection or conspiracy to this new problem to be the product of a number of disgruntled individuals who have their own agenda," the attorney said.
Wishek identified Max Lemon, another Folsom associate warden at the time of the riot, as Bunnell's chief accuser. Lemon alerted the inspector general to management's handling of the Folsom riot and its aftermath. He since has been transferred to Department of Corrections headquarters.
When contacted by The Bee, Lemon laughed at the accusation that he had an agenda. "What would my agenda be?" Lemon said. "I have absolutely no agenda but to put the truth out."
Favoritism dangerous
Prison administration experts and inmates' rights advocates say it is crucial for prison officials to maintain open lines of communication with convicts - and develop informants, as Bunnell said he was doing - in order to manage the institutions.
But the experts say few things create more danger inside an institution than officials who show outright favoritism toward certain inmates or groups. Such relationships create resentments among rival inmate groups and leave the prison employee subject to blackmail.
"It could compromise the security of the entire institution," said former Corrections director Cal Terhune.
At Deuel, documents and exhibits from Bunnell's State Personnel Board case, as well as from his criminal and civil cases, portray a prison official who had become dangerously close to segments of the inmate population.
For Tewksbury, Bunnell was accused of arranging an outside dental visit - at a cost to taxpayers of $1,835 - so the inmate could get a cosmetic gold crown.
For Richard Allen Barker, an ex-Hell's Angel incarcerated in 1975 for the murder of two fellow motorcycle gang members, Bunnell was accused of extracting a memo from the inmate's file - just before his parole hearing - that implicated him in the slaying of a prisoner.
For Ralph Gilbert Miranda, imprisoned for burglary and robbery, Bunnell was accused of instructing prison investigators not to search the inmate's cell even though Miranda was suspected of dealing heroin; a subsequent search, however, turned up assorted items of contraband in the cell, including an associate warden's television set.
According to internal Corrections documents obtained by The Bee, Tewksbury is a "validated associate" - a confirmed member - of the Mexican Mafia prison gang.
Miranda, re-imprisoned for 25 years to life since his release from Deuel on a third-strike methamphetamine conviction, is Tewksbury's brother-in-law.
Barker was identified in court and investigative documents as a "white shot caller," or leader, at Deuel, whose Anglo ethnicity aligned him with the Mexican Mafia-influenced "southern Hispanics" in the prison subculture.
The three inmates all remain in California prisons.
Members of Deuel's Investigative Services Unit - a squad of officers that probes inmate criminal activity inside prison walls - said in declarations filed in Bunnell's Personnel Board case that they first noticed in 1991 "a system of growing reliance" between Bunnell - along with another associate warden - and Tewksbury, Miranda and Barker.
Bunnell admitted that the three inmates were his informants and that he gave them preferential treatment such as attractive job assignments and, in Barker's case, a cell of his own, according to Bunnell's termination papers filed by the Corrections Department with the Personnel Board in July 1992.
The special treatment didn't end there, either, according to one Deuel investigator.
In a December 1992 sworn declaration filed with the Personnel Board, the investigator said his team "began to develop information" that Miranda and Tewksbury "were suppliers of heroin within the prison." They said Bunnell frustrated their efforts to investigate Miranda.
On one occasion, investigators said, Bunnell scratched Miranda's name off of a cell-search list. On another, they said they learned that Bunnell told staff with drug-sniffing dogs to stay away from Miranda.
