Exclusive: California prison fires 2 officers, cuts pay for others following guards’ deaths

The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has moved to fire two officers while disciplining 10 other employees at a prison near Sacramento where two officers died after making claims of harassment, hazing and corruption within a specialized investigative unit.

Most of the employees are appealing the discipline to the State Personnel Board, according to three current and former corrections employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation.

Valentino Rodriguez, who was 30, died of a fentanyl overdose at his home in West Sacramento in October 2020. Rodriguez was an officer in the Investigative Services Unit at California State Prison, Sacramento, a high-security institution in Folsom.

Kevin Steele, 56, a sergeant in the unit, was found dead at a home in Miller County, Missouri in August. The county’s coroner ruled his death a suicide.

Rodriguez left on his phone a record of harassment, hazing and threats by his coworkers.

After Rodriguez died, Steele filed whistleblower memos to corrections executives accusing prison officials of ignoring Rodriguez’s mistreatment. Steele, who called Rodriguez a friend, also accused officers in the memos of tampering with evidence, and he relayed allegations he said Rodriguez had made that officers planted evidence on inmates.

The FBI has been investigating some of Steele’s claims — including allegations that officers helped inmates coordinate a stabbing — and other misconduct at the prison, one of the state’s most dangerous. The corrections department’s Office of Internal Affairs also has been digging into the prison’s handling of inmates’ allegations, interviewing dozens of employees in recent weeks, according to two corrections sources.

Earlier this month, the department released a new disciplinary process to investigate allegations of misconduct against staff. The new procedures centralize staff discipline, bringing those reviews to the department’s headquarters instead of giving wardens an opportunity to reject complaints.

Firings, pay cuts

Corrections Department spokeswoman Dana Simas recently confirmed the department has completed its investigation into issues surrounding Rodriguez and moved to discipline 12 employees.

Simas said she couldn’t share specifics, while adding that the department takes “every allegation of misconduct by staff very seriously, and work(s) hard to ensure there is accountability when allegations are sustained.”

Three current and former corrections department employees said two of the officers were fired and others received pay suspensions of up to 10% for as much as a year.

If their appeals to the State Personnel Board are successful, the discipline — including the two terminations — could be undone or reduced.

Officer Daniel Garland, who was banned from the prison during the investigation, has been fired, according to three sources.

Garland got into an argument with Rodriguez via text in December 2019, according to messages reviewed by The Sacramento Bee.

Rodriguez had shared instructions for using a computer system the officers needed for work. Garland responded with a gay slur, saying “who gives a f---.”

When Rodriguez responded in kind, he received a video in a group chat in which a young man said, “You ever get out of pocket again, I’m gonna slap your fat ass.”

Garland did not respond to a voicemail.

Officer Marcus Jordan was also fired, according to the sources.

Rodriguez said in a text to a lieutenant that Jordan often called Black inmates monkeys and the n-word, and he said Jordan used the word in taunts about Rodriguez’s wife cheating on him.

Jordan, when reached by phone, hung up.

The corrections department confirmed Garland and Jordan had separated from state service but provided no other details. The Sacramento Bee has not viewed the notices of adverse action sent to the employees identifying specific reasons for the discipline imposed on them.

The pay reductions for some of the officers were imposed for failure to report misconduct, the sources said.

Guards customarily are transferred to work away from inmates during investigations, in places like prison mail rooms, the sources said. But the Investigative Services Unit officers continued working with inmates, and some were promoted, according to the sources and to department employment records.

Before his firing, Jordan was transferred to work as a sergeant at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, according to corrections department employment records.

Sgt. David Anderson, who was Rodriguez’s commanding officer in the unit and was among the group facing discipline, remained a sergeant at the prison in Folsom, employment records show.

Rodriguez said in a text message to an internal affairs officer that Anderson threatened to fire him if he told anyone what was going on inside the unit.

The corrections department reduced his pay, according to the sources. Anderson did not respond to a voicemail.

‘It’s not working for people’

Rodriguez’s father, who is also named Valentino Rodriguez, said he had hoped to see more serious consequences for the officers, and he wanted the prison’s leaders to be held accountable for his son’s mistreatment and for what he said was the alienation of Kevin Steele, the sergeant who filed the whistleblower memos before taking his own life.

“I’m just trying to address how the management over there doesn’t work,” Rodriguez Sr. said. “It’s not working for people. It didn’t work for my son, it didn’t work for Kevin.”

A business owner, he said he wouldn’t tolerate the treatment his son received inside an organization that promotes itself as being dedicated to integrity, accountability and respect.

“Guys tease each other at work, but at the end of the day there’s a line that’s drawn,” he said. “And this was intent on just making his life miserable. And it’s just disappointing to see this part of it.”

The corrections department denied a Public Records Act request last week from The Sacramento Bee for disciplinary records for officers in the unit.

While most California state employees’ disciplinary records become public upon appeal to the State Personnel Board, peace officers receive special protections under California law, with exceptions for dishonesty and a few other offenses.

Personnel Board spokeswoman Camille Travis said the board is unable to release information, including how many officers from the prison have filed appeals.

This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 5:00 AM.