Stab-resistant Vest Moved, Prior Incident Recovered
Update: Manuel Gonzalez Death Investigation
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March 7, 2005 - Lawyers for Officer Gonzalez's family have released information stating that evidence proving that official negligence might have contributed to the officer's death has disappeared from Chino state prison. The protective vests that have been much talked about in the media following Officer Gonzalez's death had been purchased and set aside for hundreds of correctional officers at CIM last year. Officer Gonzalez wasn't wearing the vest that had been set aside for him by the institution because they hadn't been distributed yet.
The Gonzalez family lawyers allege that the day after Officer Gonzalez was killed, the vest that was intended for him was removed from the prison supply office and the evidence proving that it had been intended for him was deliberately destroyed. According to a prison document that was obtained by the DailyBulletin.com one of those vests had been removed from the storage office by an associate warden on January 11th - the very day after Officer Gonzalez was killed. Of course this decision by administration to remove and destroy evidence raises questions about the prison's internal investigations into the killing.
CIM Chapter President Marin Aroian told news reporters, "They found that vest long before they even started looking for the murder weapon." In addition to removing the vest, the label from the box which identified which vests were intended for which officers was also removed from one of the boxes as well as the plastic wrapping on each vest which also identified the recipients by name.
No response was given by prison officials regarding the allegation, due to the ongoing investigation by the Inspector General's Office as well as by an independent review panel that was created by the Board of Corrections.
Attorney John Ferrone told reporters that in addition to not distributing the vests, the prison administration failed to take appropriate action after Blaylock, the inmate who is alleged to have killed Officer Gonzalez, had threatened another officer just two weeks before he allegedly killed Officer Gonzalez. Instead of moving inmate Blaylock to a special housing unit, the officer who had been threatened was told to avoid that particular tier.
"It would appear that the Department does nothing until tragedy strikes," said Ferrone. "It's an unfortunate tragedy that didn't have to happen."
Related Articles: CCPOA Ironwood Pays Respect to Fallen Officer
* Sources: www.dailybulletin.com and www.ca.gov.
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