Dec. 12 “Jesus!” a grateful Kim Jones said when a jury foreman repeated the words “not guilty” yesterday in a federal courtroom.Jones, a city prison guard, was reacting to a jury's decision to acquit five of her former colleagues after a five-day trial.
The former guards had been charged by the feds with beating an inmate, Geraldo Rosario, at the Philadelphia Industrial Corrections Center on June 14, 2004, and with depriving him of his civil rights.
Prosecutors, who rarely lose criminal cases in federal district court here, had little to say afterward.
“We believe in the jury system,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Linwood C. Wright Jr. “The jury has made a decision and we accept their verdict.”
Defense attorneys were gratified with the verdicts.
They said the government's case was weak and relied too much on the testimony of Rosario, a career criminal, and Shawn Miller, a prison guard who admitted he hadn't been forthcoming with investigators during their initial inquiry into the alleged beating.
“The jury didn't believe the substance of the government's case,” said Fortunato N. Perri Jr., attorney for defendant Troy Lindsey. “The men feel vindicated and just want to get on with their lives.”
Joseph C. Santaguida, attorney for defendant Arnel Alanguilan, was more blunt.
“These were five law-abiding guys with clean records,” he said of the defendants. “Is the jury going to believe them, or is it going to believe Rosario?”
Rosario, now incarcerated at a maximum-security prison in upstate New York, testified for the government. Defense attorneys said he was a gang leader who wielded a metal shank inside the prison.
“God is good, man. God is everywhere,” defendant Anthony Morant said yesterday outside U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno's courtroom.
If they had been convicted, Morant and the others could have faced a minimum of 12 months in federal prison.
The jury deliberated just over three hours.
The five guards at PICC in Northeast Philadelphia had been charged in November 2005 with beating Rosario inside a small cell.
All had pleaded not guilty.
The indictment said the guards had “repeatedly” punched, kicked, struck and pummeled Rosario while he was handcuffed, nude and kneeling in a fetal position.
The charging papers said the beating had been “retribution” for Rosario's role in a “prison disturbance” earlier that day.
– Copyright (c) 2006, Philadelphia Daily News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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