Lawsuit filed over inmate who died after cover-up at troubled California prison

Six years after guards tried to cover up the events that led to the death of a 65-year-old inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, the inmate’s family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against two guards and the prison warden.

The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento federal court, alleges excessive force and due process violations and says the family did not know how inmate Ronnie Price died because prison officials never notified them of the circumstances and they never learned of the cover-up until reading news accounts of the case.

The lawsuit names prison Warden Jeff Lynch, as well as former guards Ashley Marie Aurich and Arturo Pacheco, who were fired in 2018 and subsequently pleaded guilty in federal court to charges stemming from the incident.

Indictments and other court documents in the criminal cases against Aurich and Pacheco do not identify the dead inmate by name, and the lawsuit says Price’s sister, JoAnn Price, and half-brother, Beverly Dapremont, had no way of knowing how Price died until news accounts appeared about the case.

“Despite the fact that prison officials and law enforcement knew in 2018 that Defendants Pacheco, Aurich and others lied about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Price’s death, his sister and brother were not informed of the true cause of Mr. Price’s death,” according to the lawsuit filed by attorneys Kresta Daly and Mark Redmond.

The suit stems from an incident on Sept. 15, 2016, at the prison, also known as New Folsom, during which Pacheco, Aurich and a third guard were escorting Price from one building to another.

“Defendant Pacheco handcuffed Mr. Price’s hands behind his back while Mr. Price complained about the move,” the lawsuit says, and at one point Price “stopped walking and stiffened his torso.”

Pacheco responded by bending down behind Price, wrapping his arms around the inmate’s legs and yanking him backward, causing Price to fall face first onto the concrete, breaking his jaw and several teeth, court papers say.

Price was taken to UC Davis Medical Center for treatment, but died two days later from a pulmonary embolism while he was taking a shower in his hospital room.

Court papers say Aurich and Pacheco then filed phony reports on the incident to cover up how Price had been injured, and Pacheco later told another guard that Price “pissed (him) off” and so he “dumped” him.

Three other guards were present at the time, but they have not been identified in court papers.

Aurich pleaded guilty in January 2021 to falsifying records in a federal investigation and began cooperating with prosecutors. She faces sentencing Dec. 12.

Pacheco pleaded guilty in July to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and two counts of falsifying records and faces sentencing Oct. 17.

New Folsom guards under investigation

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials did not respond Tuesday to a request for comment on the lawsuit, but the prison has been the focus of an FBI probe into allegations of wrongdoing by guards there, including claims that guards orchestrated the slayings of two inmates.

Two lawsuits have been filed to date in connection with the death of one of those inmates, Luis Giovanny Aguilar, who was stabbed to death while cuffed to a chair.

One former prison official, Sgt. Kevin Steele, became a confidential source for inmate lawyers after he wrote to Lynch, the warden, and the state corrections secretary with allegations that officers had planted weapons and drugs, falsified documents and played video games at work.

Steele eventually was banned from the prison during what CDCR officials said was a misconduct investigation, and died at a home in Missouri in August 2021. The county coroner ruled his death a suicide.

Another whistleblower from the Investigative Services Unit where Steele worked to investigate crimes inside the prison died a year earlier from an accidental fentanyl overdose. Valentino Rodriguez, 30, had complained of harassment by other guards in the unit.

CDCR last year moved to fire two officers and discipline 10 others following the deaths of Steele and Rodriguez.

In July, lawyers for New Folsom inmate Brant Daniel, an Aryan Brotherhood member facing federal racketeering charges, asked a judge to order the government to turn over Steele’s memos to them, arguing that Daniel has claimed a knife found in his cell was planted by guards.

U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller ordered officials last week to turn over some of Steele’s memos related to the knife incident.

And last month, another inmate, Mario Amador Gonzalez, wrote to the judge in Pacheco’s case alleging he was abused while being held at New Folsom in April 2016.

“My back was broken my ribs were broken I was also forced to swallow urine & feces mixture,” Gonzales reported in a two-page handwritten letter filed in court papers. “This was done to my person as a retaliation.”

Gonzalez, now incarcerated at CSP, Los Angeles County, wrote that the incident occurred a month after he met with investigators from Steele’s unit to complain about guards cuffing and beating inmates. Gonzalez added that he was interviewed by the FBI about his claims in July 2018, weeks after CDCR fired Aurich and Pacheco.

Gonzalez wrote that he has heard nothing since about his claims from authorities.

This story was originally published September 20, 2022 at 11:17 AM with the headline "Lawsuit filed over inmate who died after cover-up at troubled California prison."