The correction officer scaled the steps, expecting to monitor inmates. Instead, prosecutors say, he entered into an ambush, where three inmates allegedly cornered and assaulted him in an attack so brutal that he lost consciousness before it ended. The beating lasted for 22 seconds.
By the time other guards hurried into the housing pod, prosecutors said, the attackers had already punched the officer approximately 30 times and kicked about 15 times. They shocked the correction officer with his own taser as he collapsed, unresponsive on the floor.
Federal authorities this week accused the three inmates — Juan Gabriel Torres, Sergio Seanez and Titus Josiah McGaw Bulger — of assault with a dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury on a person assisting officers of the United States. All three are in federal custody pending trial. Each of the attackers faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The court filings described the episode in stark detail, which unfolded inside a section of the jail where six inmates were supposed to be locked inside their cells. Among the inmates was a federal detainee the correction officer had been assigned to monitor for the U.S. Marshals Service.
According to newly filed federal court documents, the officer, identified only as John Doe, worked on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service inside the Doña Ana County Detention Center on the night of May 11. The prosecutors allege that Torres, Seanez, and Bulger waited at the top of the stairs — an area where inmates were not authorized to be.
By the time the officer reached the second floor, Torres allegedly lunged first. He attempted to punch Doe. The officer ducked the blow, according to court records. But prosecutors say Seanez and Bulger joined the attack, knocking the officer to the ground. Investigators say the inmates then attacked him relentlessly.
Court filings allege that Seanez pinned the officer down as Torres and Bulger punched, kicked, and stomped on his body, head, and neck. At some point during the relentless attack, the officer lost consciousness.
But the assault did not stop there. Prosecutors say the three inmates continued striking him even after he lay unconscious. Then, according to the complaint, Torres removed Doe’s taser from its holster and used it against the unconscious officer. Responders later rushed the officer to a hospital, where he regained consciousness.
The incident has intensified the review of detention facility safety standards that house both county and federal inmates — institutions where inadequate staffing, inmate violence, and security gaps have become flashpoints across the country.
Federal authorities did not publicly disclose possible motives for the assault. They also did not discuss whether additional security failures are under investigation. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellison and Justin A. Garris, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Albuquerque field office, said the probe involved the F.B.I.’s Las Cruces Resident Agency, the Doña Ana County Detention Center, the U.S. Marshals Service and task force officers from the Las Cruces Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Grant Gardner is handling the case. The court has yet to schedule a trial date.