Prisoners enraged over a transfer from Arizona to Indiana pummeled a guard and littered a prison yard with drill bits, socks stuffed with batteries and other improvised weapons during an April riot at New Castle Correctional Facility.
Several threw rocks and sprayed hoses at correction officers. Others ganged up to attack Capt. Ron Deaton as he tried to leave the yard, according to documents filed last month in Henry Circuit Court.
Details of the April 24 riot emerged Aug. 14 as Henry County Prosecutor Kit Crane brought 28 inmates — all but one from Arizona — into a makeshift prison courtroom to face charges connected to the disturbance.
Eight prisoners and two staff members — Deaton and grievance counselor Barry Holder — were injured in the riot, none seriously.
Riot happened 6 weeks after transfer
It occurred six weeks after the first of some 600 Arizona inmates began joining 1,050 Indiana prisoners at the Geo Group-run medium-security prison, about 45 miles east of Indianapolis. Documents filed with the charges show that frustration tied to the move helped trigger the violence.
Trouble started around lunchtime, when guards couldn’t get Arizona inmates to put on the green smocks they’re supposed to wear when they head to meals. The prisoners segregated themselves by groups — white, black, Mexican and Native American — and a representative from each went to a meeting to discuss a resolution.
But inmates from one dorm then mustered for mealtime without their smocks. Guards decided to take the inmates to the mess hall anyway “to contain them there and deal with them,” a case report states.
When the prisoners encountered a locked gate between the mess hall and their dorm, they started climbing fences.
Indiana prisoners joined in, breaking glass in their dorm windows to get out. About 200 inmates were out when a couple of Arizona inmates blocked the path of Deaton as the guard walked toward a gate.
Prisoner Derrick M. Vogt dropped to his hands and knees behind the officer while the other inmates pushed Deaton, toppling him over Vogt, the report stated.
Inmate Todd Rogers, identified as a “shot caller” who gave orders to other prisoners, shoved Deaton, according to court papers, while others kicked and stomped on him.
Vogt is charged with rioting, a Class D felony, and other counts. Rogers faces a rioting charge and a misdemeanor battery count.
The riot lasted a couple hours, but some prisoners lingered in the recreation yard afterward. Capt. Theodore R. Cabral, a prison guard, told State Police that those who stayed out wanted “to see what would happen.”
“He felt like they wanted to keep numbers there to see if they would send the inmates that stayed out and were noncompliant back to Arizona,” a report states.
Indiana and Arizona suspended the prison transfers after the riot, but New Castle currently houses 611 Arizona inmates and 1,319 from Indiana.
A state report issued in May acknowledged the Arizona Department of Correction transferred inmates too quickly. Inexperienced guards, too much idle time for the new inmates and imbalanced meal and recreation schedules for inmates from the two states also were cited as causes.
Bill Lamoreaux, an Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman, said the state would proceed slowly on future transfers.
On Aug. 14, the inmates filed into the makeshift courtroom one by one for a brief appearance before one of three judges handling the hearings. Few inmates said more than a few words as they heard charges against them that include rioting, battery on an employee of a penal facility, criminal mischief and intimidation.
Prisoner Timothy Boyle, who sported tattoos of a hanging police officer on his neck and a giant skull on his shaved head, told a judge he didn’t want a local public defender to represent him.
“I don’t believe I will get a fair trial in this county,” he said.
Associated Press writers Paul Davenport and Moises D. Mendoza contributed from Phoenix.