3 California Correctional Deputies Arrested In Inmate Death
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Three California correctional deputies were arrested on suspicion of murder in the death of an inmate at a county jail, sheriff's officials said Thursday.
Santa Clara County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. James Jensen said the deputies were in custody in connection with a death that happened late last week.
The deputies are Rafael Rodriguez, 37, Jereh Lurbin, 28, and Matthew Farris, 27. They are being held without bail.
The sheriff's office planned to hold a news conference Thursday afternoon, he said.
Attempts to reach relatives of the deputies were unsuccessful Thursday.
Inmate Michael Tyree, 31, died last week at the jail, according to media reports. He had pleaded no contest to petty theft, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The newspaper, citing court records, said Tyree was homeless and awaiting to be transferred to a mental-health facility when he died. He had entered his plea in a special mental-health court. A former girlfriend told the newspaper that he had hoped for life of peace and tried, although unsuccessfully, to keep his bipolar disorder in check.
Lindsay Solomon, who dated Tyree when she was a teenager in Coral Springs, Florida, told the paper he could get "very agitated and agitate someone else. I could see it escalating."
"But if you're a police officer, or a guard, you should have better judgment than that," she told the Mercury News.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.