THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508310456
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: EMPORIA LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
A jury convicted a Greensville Correctional Center guard in the beating of an inmate.
Three other guards and three inmates pleaded guilty to charges that they were involved in assaulting the prisoner.
A Greensville Circuit Court jury on Tuesday convicted guard Jerry Robertson of conspiracy in the September 1993 beating of Arthur Mathisen.
The jury recommended a sentence of a $500 fine and court costs, which Judge Robert O'Hara imposed. Robertson had faced up to 10 years in prison.
Also Tuesday, three other Greensville guards and three inmates pleaded guilty to charges that they were involved in assaulting Mathisen. In exchange for the pleas, the judge agreed to dismiss the charges in six months if the defendants are well-behaved.
In Robertson's trial, the prosecution argued that Robertson directed an inmate to beat Mathisen. Witnesses said Robertson watched the assault and later congratulated at least one of the inmates for his role in the beating.
The defense agreed Mathisen, 38, was beaten, but said Robertson had nothing to do with the beating.
Mathisen testified that Robertson stood at his cell, smiling, with one of the three inmates just before the prisoners rushed into his cell and beat him.
Inmate Bobby Dobbins, 26, testified he and other inmates beat up Mathisen after Robertson and another guard told him they had ``a mission'' for him. Dobbins said Robertson told him that he wanted him to ``take care of Fat Boy,'' a nickname for Mathisen.
Dobbins said Robertson told him if he didn't do as he was told, ``the same thing will happen to you.''
Dobbins and two other inmates testified that they saw Robertson in the area of Mathisen's cell at the time of the assault.
Robertson testified that he did not stand at Mathisen's cell, he did not see the beating and that he had nothing to do with the assault.
``I was not there, sir,'' Robertson said in answer to a question from Greensville County Commonwealth's Attorney C. Gilbert Hudson. Robertson said the four inmates who testified to his involvement lied.
As for the plea agreements for the three other guards and three inmates, Hudson said he proposed a plea agreement because he saw technical problems with the case and wanted, with the guards' pleas, to keep them from working in Virginia prisons.
Pleading guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery were inmates Dobbins, Matthew Mangus, 32, and Michael Pembelton, 26; and correctional officers Jerry Lynch, 27, Rickey Harvey, 29, and Theresa Kennedy, 36.
The seven co-defendants in Tuesday's cases were among 13 guards and four inmates indicted last year on charges that they were involved in brutalizing inmates. Most of the guards have been acquitted or had their charges dropped or dismissed.
One of the inmates has been convicted twice and sentenced to a total of 10 years for stabbing one prisoner and beating another.
KEYWORDS: GUILTY PLEA ASSAULT INMATE by CNB