A man formerly incarcerated in San Francisco filed a complaint on Tuesday against the city and multiple sheriff's deputies he accused of initiating a physical fight that left him with black eyes and bruised ribs last October.
Kayleb Hardee alleges that Deputy Abraham Escobar stood outside his cell and threatened him soon after Hardee learned he'd be transferred to state prison to serve a manslaughter sentence.
"You are going to be someone's bitch in prison," Escobar allegedly told Hardee. "You are going to be my bitch here."
According to the complaint and interviews with Hardee and people who said they witnessed the incident, Escobar ordered Hardee to go to a multipurpose room hidden from jail cameras. Hardee said Escobar gave no explanation, but told him "we're going to handle this the old San Bruno way" and removed him from his cell without handcuffs.
In 2015, three deputies were accused of forcing people in their custody to fight each other in gladiator-style battles at the jail in San Bruno. Prosecutors later dropped the criminal charges against the deputies, saying they learned the sheriff's department mishandled the investigation. All three were reinstated.
"Once we are served with the lawsuit, we will review the complaint and respond in court," said Alex Barrett-Shorter, a spokesperson for the City Attorney's Office.
Inside the private room, the complaint said, Escobar "immediately began punching" Hardee, then called for additional deputies to respond when Hardee tried to defend himself.
Hardee claims he dropped to the ground in surrender before Escobar mounted his back and repeatedly punched him in the head.
"Other yet-to-be-identified deputies, without provocation and/or justification, began to violently assault Kayleb, punching him in the face, spitting on him, jumping on his back, and kicking him," the complaint alleges.
Two other deputies are identified in the complaint only by last name. One identified in the complaint as Deputy Lopez allegedly watched the fight from within the room. Another identified as Deputy Jones allegedly entered the room and tased Hardee in the face, leaving him temporarily blind in one eye.
"Kayleb's cries from the pain inflicted on him were so loud that inmates in other cells could hear him pleading with the deputies to stop their unlawful and unjustifiable abuse, telling them that he was not resisting," Hardee's attorneys wrote in the complaint.
A deputy who responded to the fight later wrote in a report that Hardee "got into a mutual combat fight with deputized staff."
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto reassigned Escobar and opened an investigation, spokesperson Tara Moriarty said soon after the incident. "Any abuse of authority is a serious breach of public trust," she added.
Tuesday's complaint alleges that the city officials were aware of a pattern of deputy misconduct in San Francisco's jails. In a recent survey of people incarcerated this spring, one in three respondents said they'd been seriously injured in jail.
Hardee and his mother, Nicole Gorton, said Hardee was taken to an isolated cell and denied medical treatment until several days after the alleged incident. They said Hardee was transferred to a maximum security prison with fewer extracurricular opportunities after the alleged incident flagged him as higher risk.
Hardee is asking for damages and a jury trial.
"It's a travesty what's going on in the jail, from what happened to my son to what happened to other inmates there," Gorton said. "Something needs to change."
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This article originally published at S.F. deputies sued for allegedly starting violent fight with man in custody.