California prison guard pleads guilty to four felonies in cover-up at facility near Sacramento

A former guard at California State Prison, Sacramento, pleaded guilty Monday to four felony counts that could net him up to 60 years in prison for physically abusing two inmates, one of whom later died.

Arturo Pacheco, 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and two counts of falsifying records before Senior U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb in Sacramento federal court.

Pacheco, who hesitated slightly and spoke in a broken voice when Shubb asked if he was ready to waive his rights to trial and plead guilty, is the second former guard to plead guilty in a wide-ranging FBI investigation of allegations of wrongdoing and abuse inside the prison also known as New Folsom.

“Pacheco deprived inmates of their civil rights, abusing his position of authority as a correctional officer to harm them,” U.S. Attorney Phil Talbert said in a statement issued after the court hearing. “While Pacheco thought a ‘green wall’ or code of silence would protect him, he was wrong.

“His crimes have come to light and today he has admitted to his assaults and cover up. Those who violate the public’s trust by harming inmates ‘under the color of law’ or by covering up wrongdoing must and will be held accountable.”

Pacheco was accused of pepper-spraying an inmate in the face, then falsely reporting that the inmate was holding a shard of glass and threatening to kill himself.

He also was accused of yanking a handcuffed inmate’s legs out from under him, causing the inmate to fall forward and smash his face onto a concrete floor, then filing false reports about the incident and trying to cover it up by having another guard also file a false report.

The inmate was treated at UC Davis Medical Center and died two days after the incident.

Another guard, Ashley Marie Aurich, pleaded guilty in January 2021 to a single count of falsifying records in a federal investigation and is awaiting sentencing as she cooperates with federal prosecutors.

Pacheco and Aurich were indicted in November 2020 in connection with the Sept. 15, 2016, incident involving a 65-year-old inmate the two were escorting inside the prison.

Pacheco was accused in court papers of bragging to a colleague about the pepper-spraying incident, and of telling another guard that the inmate who later died “pissed (him) off” and so he “dumped” him.

Pacheco faces sentencing Oct. 17.

This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 11:25 AM.