Like many rookie deputies fresh out of the San Bernardino County sheriff’s training academy, 22-year-old Luke Van Ginkel began his law enforcement career at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga.

But unlike most deputies, Van Ginkel had a sadistic streak during his stint there, according to interviews with more than a half-dozen inmates at West Valley. Not only did Van Ginkel threaten some inmates, they said, but more often he provoked inmates to fight one another in the jail’s protective custody unit.

A May 22 criminal complaint filed in San Bernardino Superior Court charges Van Ginkel with criminal threats and assault. Fellow rookie Deputy Arthur Enriquez, who inmates say often went along with and covered up for Van Ginkel’s alleged iniquity, is charged with a felony count of accessory after the fact.

West Valley inmate Alex Garcia is charged with one felony count of assault likely to produce great bodily injury for an alleged assault on fellow inmate Richard Freeman on Dec. 31, 2018.

Van Ginkel, Enriquez and Garcia all pleaded not guilty to the charges during their June 17 arraignment. They will next appear in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court on Aug. 5 for a pretrial hearing.

‘Staged multiple fights’

In interviews, inmates say Van Ginkel instigated more than just Garcia’s alleged New Year’s Eve assault on Freeman.

“They staged multiple fights,” West Valley inmate John Rodriguez said in an interview at the jail. Rodriguez said he witnessed the alleged assault on Freeman, as well as another inmate assault facilitated by Van Ginkel by inmate Jose Angel Carrillo.

Carrillo admitted to the assault during a recent interview at the jail, saying he did it out of fear of Van Ginkel and concern for his own safety.

“I didn’t want to become someone’s bitch,” Carrillo said.

Culture of abuse?

The charges against Van Ginkel and Enriquez come five years after allegations of inmate abuse by at least three rookie deputies surfaced in the same unit at the jail, prompting investigations by the Sheriff’s Department and the FBI in March 2014.

Inmates alleged a pattern of Taser gun torture by rookie Deputies Brock Teyechea, Andrew Cruz and Nicholas Oakley. The three deputies, along with Deputies Robert Escamilla, Russell Kopasz, Robert Morris and Eric Smale, were either fired or resigned from the Sheriff’s Department, authorities said. None of the deputies was criminally charged.

In March 2018, the Berkeley-based prisoner advocacy nonprofit, Prison Law Office, settled a class-action lawsuit with the county alleging inmate civil rights violations at county jails, including excessive use of force by deputies on inmates and inadequate medical and mental health care.

Under terms of the settlement, Sheriff John McMahon agreed to, among other things, revise the department’s deputy use-of-force policy and expand inmate health-care services. A federal judge approved the consent decree in December 2018.

Some allege a culture and pattern of inmate abuse in county jails, especially in West Valley’s protective custody unit, where accused child molesters, gang dropouts and others who face danger from the general population are housed.

“It’s a complete and total culture of violence handed down from one generation to the next,” said Victorville defense attorney Jim Terrell, who along with attorney Sharon Brunner represented 33 inmate plaintiffs in seven federal civil rights lawsuits stemming from the Taser gun torture allegations. Those cases were settled in July 2017 for a total of $2.75 million.

“It appears conditions have not improved at San Bernardino County jails,” Brunner said. “I continue to be very concerned and disheartened at the number of inmates who contact me about beatings, denial of medical care and the cruel indifference of (West Valley Detention Center) staff.”

Since January, Terrell and Brunner say they have received more than 20 complaints from inmates alleging Van Ginkel staged fights or assaulted them at the jail.

McMahon, as he did in 2014, maintains there is no culture of inmate abuse at West Valley or any other county jail, and that there is nothing to tie the allegations against Van Ginkel and Enriquez to the Taser gun abuse cases of the past.

“There’s nothing to connect the two. There’s nothing to suggest a pattern,” he said during a recent tour of the jail.

Van Ginkel’s attorney, Michael Begovich, said his client resigned from the Sheriff’s Department amid the internal affairs and criminal investigations. He declined to comment for this story. The Sheriff’s Department confirmed Van Ginkel was no longer working for the department as of April 1.

Enriquez is still employed at the department, but remains on paid administrative leave.

Inmates allege abuse

During interviews over the past month, inmates said inmate Freeman was assaulted by Garcia in a hair-cutting room, housed in the “G Room” of the unit, which also has a nurse’s office and upstairs phone bank for inmates to talk to visitors.

Inmate Rodriguez said he was a chow server preparing meals in the G Room when Van Ginkel brought in a handcuffed Freeman and sat him in the “barber room,” as it is called. Rodriguez said Van Ginkel instructed him to push a food cart in front of the barber room to obstruct the view.

“You know what time it is,” Rodriguez quoted Van Ginkel as saying.

He said he complied with Van Ginkel’s orders out of fear of what would happen to him if he didn’t. Rodriguez said Garcia, at Van Ginkel’s urging, went into the room and began punching Freeman. Garcia also is charged in connection with the May 2018 fatal shooting of an Ontario man.

Freeman filed a claim with the county on Jan. 23 alleging abuse, denial of medical care and cruel and unusual punishment. He signed a settlement agreement with the county on Jan. 31 for $250,000, and agreed to keep details of the incident confidential, according to the claim and settlement agreement.

Carrillo, who is in custody for attempted murder, said he assaulted an inmate inside his cell on Christmas Eve 2018 after Van Ginkel opened both his and the other inmate’s cell doors. Van Ginkel orchestrated the whole thing, even telling Carrillo to use the excuse of needing a toilet plunger as the reason for leaving his cell, Carrillo said.

Carrillo said he beat the inmate until he pleaded for him to stop, then returned to his cell, where he said Van Ginkel got on the cell intercom and said, “I hope you enjoyed your Christmas present.”

Neither Carrillo nor other inmates interviewed for this story could remember the name of the inmate victim, only the cell number and cell block where he was housed in and that he went by the nickname “Smokey.”

Carrillo is named in the criminal complaint against Van Ginkel, but not as a charged assault suspect like Garcia. Rather, he is considered a victim of criminal threats by Van Ginkel on Dec. 23, 2018.

Deputy District Attorney Debbie Ploghaus, who is prosecuting Van Ginkel, Enriquez and Garcia, said she did not have enough evidence to support a criminal assault or battery charge against Carrillo that would have held up at trial. She did, however, believe her evidence was solid in proving Van Ginkel threatened Carrillo.

Ploghaus said she was unaware of allegations by other inmates — including Michael Flores and Darrell Jones — that Van Ginkel assaulted them.

Other assaults alleged

Flores alleges he was physically attacked in his cell by Van Ginkel and Enriquez last November after he exchanged words with a female custody specialist. He claims Van Ginkel entered his cell and “sucker punched” him on the right side of his face. He said he fell to the floor and put his hands behind his back to show he wasn’t resisting, when Van Ginkel and Enriquez allegedly kicked and punched him repeatedly.

Flores said other deputies, sergeants and nurses were aware of the incident but did nothing.

“Sergeants and deputies all knew about it, and they turned a blind eye,” said Flores, who has since been transferred to the High Desert Detention Center in Adelanto.

Flores said he filed a grievance about the incident, but could not remember the findings from the investigation, only that they were not in his favor.

Jones, who is in custody for the the January 2016 beating death of his mother, Barbara Crumity, said Van Ginkel in December cuffed one of his hands through the food tray slot of his cell door, then pepper sprayed his cell with the other hand. Jones said Van Ginkel firmly held him in place for a minute or two as he inhaled the caustic chemicals.

“He was yelling, ‘stop resisting!’ while he was spraying it. I said, ‘What?’ You got me handcuffed. I’m cooperating!” Jones said during a recent interview at the jail. “I was coughing up blood.”

Jones said he has asthma, and was subsequently taken by Van Ginkel to the nurse’s office in the G Room, where Van Ginkel offered him a bottle of water. He said the nurse cleared him medically to return to his cell.

Jones is now housed in another unit at the jail.

Inmates also allege that Van Ginkel drank pruno — jailhouse wine made from a batch of assorted fruit, bread and sugar — with inmates. Carrillo said he made two big batches of pruno in his cell, and Van Ginkel dropped by and helped himself to two servings in a paper cup.

“That’s true! That actually happened,” said inmate Lordell Jones. He also said Van Ginkle and Enriquez bet on the alleged fight involving inmate Carrillo and the other unidentified inmate, “Smokey.”

Sheriff’s Department officials say they have no record of any allegations against Van Ginkel involving pruno consumption.

“I checked with jail staff and the team that investigated the inmate assault incidents and neither of them received any information like this during the investigation,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said.

Enriquez’s attorney, Michael Schwartz, maintains his client’s innocence. Asked about the allegations made by the inmates, he said, “Consider the source where it’s coming from. There’s no corroboration outside a bunch of criminals.”