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Arkansas Prisoner Transport
June 29, 2010 AP
The parents of a Utah inmate killed in a southern Arkansas van rollover in
2008 have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a private company that
contracts with law enforcement to transport prisoners across the country.
Court papers filed in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court Friday claimed
U.S. Extradition Services of Stockton, Calif., was negligent in the June
27, 2008, accident that killed Shawn Robert Talbot. The lawsuit filed by
Robert and Linda Talbot contended the driver fell asleep at the wheel
before the van drifted into oncoming traffic on U.S. 167. Another employee
grabbed the wheel of the van and overcorrected. The van then hit a culvert
and went airborne before rolling twice and coming to a stop, an Arkansas
State Police officer told a newspaper at the time. Court papers said
Talbot, 29, was handcuffed and shackled, but not wearing a seat belt. He
died at the scene. Seven inmates and two guards were in the van, which was
headed to Little Rock, the state police said. One other inmate was killed,
and four were injured. A telephone message left at U.S. Extradition's
corporate office was not immediately returned Tuesday. David Morgan, a Utah
attorney for Talbot's parents, told The Associated Press he believes U.S.
Extradition employees were not properly trained. The lawsuit seeks
unspecified damages. Named as defendants in the lawsuit are company
President and Operations Director Gordon Brooks and employee Gregory Reed.
A company website said U.S. Extradition has offices nationwide, including
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina,
Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas.
California
Prisoner Transport
June 18, 2009 Santa Barbara Independent
Authorities believe two men working for a contracted prisoner
transportation company forced a female inmate to perform sexual acts on
them, while returning her to Santa Barbara County Jail in October of last
year. According to court records, Roland Ygelsias,
29, is facing a felony count of forcible copulation, a violent and serious
felony. Prosecutors allege he forced a female inmate to give him oral sex
during a trip transporting prisoners throughout California, while in a van
with seven inmates in it, both male and female. Ygelsias,
along with 28-year-old Miguel Jacobo, is also facing
a misdemeanor count of sexual activity in a detention facility with a
consenting adult who is confined. The two worked for U.S. Extradition
Services, a company that contracted with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s
Department to transport inmates among prisons and jails. Ygelsias picked up the victim and one other prisoner at
Chowchilla State Prison, according to a report from Santa Barbara Sheriff’s
Detective Michael Scherbarth. From there, the van
traveled to Jacobo’s sister’s residence to pick
up Jacobo. The woman told Scherbarth
that not long after, Jacobo was looking at her
and smiling, while Ygelsias made comments about
her sitting on his lap, which made her feel uncomfortable. Along the way,
more stops were made and more inmates picked up. After Ygelsias
drove for awhile, according to the victim, he said he wanted to take a nap,
and sat next to her in the first bench-row of the van. Then he said he
wanted to switch sides, and he lifted her up onto and over his lap,
according to Scherbarth’s report. “Ygelsias then began to tug at her gown and proceeded to
tell her he was a federal agent and that he could do things to her,” Scherbarth wrote, saying the man then unzipped his
pants and felt the woman’s leg. He then allegedly pushed her head down onto
his lap and pulled on her hair, “violent in his actions,” and told her,
“You’re going to catch this all in your mouth.” The woman told authorities
the man’s penis went into her mouth, he ejaculated, and she had to spit the
fluid into her gown. “Every time she tried to lift her head up off of his
penis he would grab her hair and pull her head down violently,” Scherbarth said in his report. This all occurred during
the drive somewhere near San Diego, she claimed. Ygelsias’s
version of events, as told to detectives who interviewed him, was that he
took four Ambien sleeping pills to fall asleep.
“He remembered waking up at one point and the victim was performing oral
sex on him,” Scherbarth wrote. The defendant
explained that he wasn’t able to do anything about it, or even completely
wake up, because of the pills. He told the detectives he was “embarrassed,
ashamed, and scared of what had happened.” Contrary to the victim’s claims,
he said he never exposed himself and never touched the victim. However, a
Sheriff’s detective pointed out that it would have been difficult for the
woman to undo Ygelsias’s pants herself, because
he was wearing his duty belt at the time. The alleged victim said that
although nobody talked about what had happened, she believed everyone knew.
But most of the witnesses either couldn’t be tracked down by detectives, or
reported that they didn’t see anything. A couple of witnesses said they did
see the victim’s head go down into Ygelsias’s
lap, but didn’t witness any sexual interaction. They and TK said the
contact appeared consensual. Jacobo told
detectives he heard about Ygelsias and the victim
after the fact, from one of the inmates. Jocobo
denied that he himself had any physical contact with the woman, who claimed
he made her masturbate him. Jacobo claimed he
drove the entire time while Ygelsias, whom he had
never worked with prior to this trip, slept. Another agent reportedly told
detectives that he knew Jacobo was “easily
manipulated and he very well could have ‘got caught up in the moment,’ seen
Ygelsias get a blow job, and think to himself
that he could do the same thing.” The agent said Jacobo
told him he got a “hand job” from the victim, but after being confronted by
the agent, said he was just joking. The victim told Scherbarth
she consented to Ygelsias touching her legs and
penetrating her vagina with his fingers, but that she was not okay with the
oral sex and that he forced her to do that. Ygelsias
and Jacobo were relatively new employees, having
worked for U.S. Extradition Services for less than six months. Ygelsias was fired after the incident, while Jacobo resigned in the face of termination, according
to Bill Brees, director of marketing and
operations support for the company. “It’s not the type of publicity you
want to see when you’re providing a service,” Brees
said. “It has a negative effect on everyone.” It is company policy that
agents, who are usually armed, not ride in the back of the van. It’s not
cost-effective for law enforcement agencies to transport inmates, so
companies like U.S. Extradition Services are contracted to do the work. The
Sheriff’s Department dropped U.S. Extradition, and now works with another
company, Court Services Transport, according to department spokesperson
Drew Sugars. The department primarily uses the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s
Department Statewide Transport at a rate of 68 cents a mile. If that
service is unavailable, or can’t meet a deadline for pickup, the Sheriff
contracts with Court Services Transport at a cost of 95 cents a mile. Ygelsias’s attorney didn’t return a call seeking
comment, and The Independent’s efforts to locate Ygelsias
for comment were unsuccessful. Jacobo, after
initially returning The Independent's phone calls, could not be reached for
comment. Senior deputy district attorney Joyce Dudley, who is prosecuting
the case, didn't have any comment on the case except to say the preliminary
hearing was set to begin June 26.
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