DATE: Saturday, August 9, 1997              TAG: 9708090272

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   46 lines

FBI IS INVESTIGATING INMATES' ALLEGED ABUSE IN HENRICO COUNTY

The FBI is investigating allegations that several former Henrico County sheriff's deputies beat or abused inmates at the county jail and in some cases charged prisoners with provoking the attacks.

Authorities also are looking into complaints that several employees of the jail's former health care provider, EMSA Ltd. Correctional Care, abused or mistreated inmates and altered their medical records. The county switched to another provider last year in a decision unrelated to abuse complaints.

The Richmond FBI office has completed a preliminary investigation and is waiting to hear from the Justice Department on whether to look further into the matter as a civil rights case, said FBI spokeswoman Mary Johlie.

Asked about the probe, Henrico Sheriff A.D. ``Toby'' Mathews said he has not been contacted by the FBI. However, several sheriff's office insiders told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the investigation has been going on since November.

Assistant County Attorney James T. Moore III said Thursday the county and the sheriff's office would cooperate fully with any investigation, but he would not confirm that one is in progress.

The FBI agent assigned to the case has reviewed at least four alleged incidents of excessive force by three deputies, all of whom have since resigned or been fired, unidentified sources told the newspaper.

In one case, two deputies allegedly beat an inmate in his cell without provocation, the newspaper said. In another, an inmate who yelled at a deputy when a telephone call the inmate was making got cut off was beaten by the deputy.

Some deputies ``had a habit of provoking inmates into violent confrontations,'' a source told the newspaper. The incidents occurred during the past three years, the newspaper said.

Mathews, who was elected sheriff in 1992, said he won't allow inmate abuse. ``There's nothing that's taking place here at this point, because I won't tolerate that type of thing,'' he said.

The EMSA allegations were that some employees physically abused inmates, altered their medical records and obtained drugs using inmates' names, sources told the newspaper.

Joyce Johnson, a spokeswoman at EMSA's Birmingham, Ala., headquarters, said the company wasn't aware of the allegations and had no comment. KEYWORDS: INVESTIGATION JAIL INMATES ABUSE ALLEGED

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