Third Sacramento prison guard charged in cover up of inmate’s death

A third California prison guard has been charged in the cover-up of the death of an inmate at California State Prison-Sacramento six years ago, this time on charge of falsifying records and lying to a federal grand jury about the incident.

Federal court records unsealed Tuesday in Sacramento say correctional Sgt. Brenda Villa was part of a conspiracy to falsify records in the death of 65-year-old inmate Ronnie Price after he was attacked by guard Arturo Pacheco as Pacheco was escorting Price in the prison with the inmate’s hands cuffed behind his back.

The latest indictment says Villa “communicated orally and by email with CDCR officers” to submit reports that concealed who was present at the time Pacheco yanked Price’s legs out from under him, causing him to fall face-first onto the concrete.

Price died two days later from a pulmonary embolism while in a Sacramento hospital, and his death is now the subject of a federal wrongful death lawsuit.

Federal prosecutors say Pacheco and another guard, Ashley Marie Aurich, tried to cover up what happened to Price inside the prison also known as “New Folsom.”

Pacheco pleaded guilty in July to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and two counts of falsifying records and was sentenced in October to 12 years and seven months in prison. He is due to report for his sentence on Jan. 10.

Aurich was sentenced two weeks ago to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of falsifying records in a federal investigation and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.

Lawyers in the case were cryptic at the time about the type of cooperation she provided and some documents remained sealed, apparently because four days before Aurich was sentenced a federal grand jury had secretly indicted Villa on charges of conspiracy to commit falsification of records in a federal investigation, three additional counts of falsification of records in a federal investigation and perjury.

The indictment unsealed Tuesday says the Sept. 15, 2016, incident began when Villa, 32, ordered Pacheco and Aurich to escort Price to another cell at the prison with three other, unnamed guards present.

After Pacheco yanked Price’s legs backward and caused him to fall, Villa responded to the scene and “took charge of the incident, directing other officers to execute certain tasks,” the indictment says.

As part of the alleged conspiracy, Villa, Pacheco and others wrote reports to conceal the presence of another, unnamed officer at the scene who is identified only as “Correctional Officer 2,” court papers say.

“In some instances, Villa returned draft reports to correctional officers one or more times with instructions for additional edits that served to conceal that Correctional Officer 2 was present during the incident and to reduce and eliminate inconsistencies in the reports that might cause further investigation into the incident,” the indictment says. “Villa signed and finalized the false reports.”

The indictment also says that Villa testified under oath before a federal grand jury on Nov. 5, 2020, and lied when she claimed that only Aurich was at the scene when she arrived. The indictment says Pacheco and three other guards were in the area and that Villa saw them.

Villa was arraigned Tuesday afternoon and ordered held in custody pending a hearing Wednesday, court filings say. Her attorney, Eric Hintz, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Villa, Pacheco and Aurich all were fired in 2018 as CDCR and federal investigators looked into the case.

This story was originally published December 27, 2022 at 3:15 PM.