Nov. 08--A celebration for Sheriff Mark Pazin commemorating 30 years of service to the county was cut short Tuesday morning by a brutal inmate assault on a correctional officer at the county's Main Jail.
The officer was taking 35-year-old Abel Ambrocio to the courthouse from the jail at about 10 a.m. when the inmate turned and punched her in the mouth, Pazin said. The officer was knocked to the ground.
The incident happened around the same time several department officials were on hand at the County Administration Building to see Pazin awarded with his 30-year service pin by the Board of Supervisors.
An ambulance was called to treat the correctional officer, who suffered a possible dislocated wrist and shoulder, Pazin said. Her lip was split open, and will probably need stitches. A male correctional officer was also injured while trying to subdue Ambrocio, and was treated for a right arm injury.
The names of both correctional officers are being withheld until further investigation. Both were taken to Mercy Medical Center.
The female correctional officer "was in relatively good spirits, but obviously very shaken up by the brutality of this person," Pazin said.
The inmate, who's an illegal alien, was originally arrested Oct. 1 by the California Highway Patrol on suspicion of driving under the influence, but he's been on an immigration hold by the federal government, Pazin said.
County officials plan to work with the federal government to review ways to expedite the process of removing illegal immigrant inmates who are charged with misdemeanors so they can "take this piece of vermin out of here and send him back to Mexico," Pazin said.
It shouldn't be the county's responsibility to house an inmate on a misdemeanor offense with no bail for an extended period of time because of a federal immigration hold, he said.
"Somewhere along the line, there's some disconnection and we have to put that connectivity back to get these people out of the local facility and head them back to where they came from," Pazin said.
Ambrocio, who's in lockdown, didn't try to run after assaulting the officers and was shot with a Taser when backup officers arrived. "These people, they're just mean," Pazin said. "They have nothing to live for."
Ambrocio now faces new felony charges of battery on a correctional officer, according to Deputy Tom MacKenzie, sheriff's spokesman.
Rudy Gonzalez, a Teamsters law enforcement league representative affiliated with the local sheriff's department workers union, said the incident could be a snapshot of understaffing and a lack of funding on the correctional side of the department.
He added that a high inmate population and mandated overtime can create unsafe working conditions for correctional officers.
Reporter Mike North can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or [email protected].
Copyright 2011 - Merced Sun-Star, Calif.
