A former prison guard who helped plant screwdrivers in an inmate’s cell said he did it because he was afraid of retaliation from the Ramsey Unit major who allegedly ordered the misdeed.

“I was in fear of my own life,” ex-sergeant Marcus Gallegos told attorneys when he was questioned under oath as part of a lawsuit. “It’s not a game in there.”

The 26-year-old former Texas Department of Criminal Justice sergeant now being sued was indicted last year, along with three other corrections officials who allegedly framed prisoner Neil Giese and then wrote him up with a fake disciplinary infraction. The motivation for targeting the 40-year-old inmate from Montgomery County is unclear, but the recent depositions shed light on the 2018 scandal.

“When I listened to the testimony, it made me cringe,” said John LaGrappe, the Houston attorney representing Giese in his federal suit against five former Ramsey Unit officials. “It really makes me wonder what else goes on those prisons that we don’t know about.”

Gallegos and ex-major Juan Jackson — the man he feared — have both pleaded guilty to felony tampering charges in exchange for probation. Two other officers’ criminal cases are pending with trials scheduled for trial next week. None of their attorney responded to requests for comment.

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Then-Lt. James Thomas first received orders in the major’s office in May 2018, according to Gallegos’ testimony.

“Major wants us to do him a favor,” he allegedly told Gallegos and fellow Officer George Wolfe.

Then, he pulled two screwdrivers out of his left pocket.

“What are those for?” Gallegos remembered asking. “I mean, do we need to get inmates out?”

The lieutenant said no, and explained: “He wants us to plant these on Giese.”

Gallegos said he asked why, but that the lieutenant didn’t answer and instead ordered Wolfe to do it.

“If you don’t want to do it,” Thomas allegedly added, “you go tell the major.”

Gallegos said he didn’t like being “put on the spot” and didn’t want to participate. But the lieutenant allegedly stashed the tools in Gallegos’ desk, and the next day reminded him to “take care” of it.

“And I just put my head down,” Gallegos testified. “I just shook my head, and I said, ‘Man, this …. is bad.’”

But still, the officers did a shakedown — which Gallegos later testified was to create an opportunity to plant screwdrivers in Giese’s cell. Wolfe allegedly asked where he should put them — and Gallegos said he didn’t want to know anything about it.

“So then he kind of sits there for a minute,” Gallegos recalled, “and he’s like, ‘What do you think about in the mattress?’”

Gallegos repeated that he didn’t want to know anything, and a few minutes later he left the area when he finished searching a nearby cell.

“So a couple of minutes goes by,” he testified. “He calls me. He’s like, ‘Hey, I found these two screwdrivers.’ I didn’t say nothing.”

Wolfe showed the “find” to Jackson, who voiced his approval — then ordered the officer to write Giese up with an infraction, Gallegos said. Jackson told them exactly what to write, and Gallegos watched as Wolfe put it to paper, even calling the major back at one point to confirm exactly what he was expected to say.

But the offense report from the incident was false, Gallegos testified. He only went along with it because he was “in fear” that he would get beat up or stabbed, he told LaGrappe under questioning.

“ I was scared,” he said.

Attorneys also questioned under oath then-warden Virgil McMullen and the three other officers involved in the screwdriver-planting scandal. While two — Wolfe and Thomas — asserted their Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination and refused to answer questions citing their pending criminal cases, McMullen and Jackson both offered testimony.

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The transcripts from those depositions aren’t yet available, but LaGrappe said the men offered conflicting statements about the motive. Though McMullen - who has since been demoted and transferred for unrelated reasons — said he barely knew the targeted prisoner, Jackson testified that the warden hated Giese and wanted him gone.

Jackson described the plot to “find” screwdrivers as part of an effort to investigate drug smuggling on the unit. By framing Giese, they hoped to pressure him to reveal the source of the drugs, according to LaGrappe’s recount.

A Texas prison spokesman declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

The plot came to light after Giese’s mom complained her son had been framed. By that point, prison investigators had already begun probing a disciplinary quota system uncovered by the Houston Chronicle after leaked emails showed officials ordering officers to turn in a certain number of inmate write-ups per shift or face repercussions themselves. Though the Texas Department of Criminal Justice repeatedly stressed that the evidence-planting and the quotas were unconnected problems, Jackson was allegedly involved in both.

Weeks after it began, prison officials abandoned the alleged quota system, and after an investigation and statewide audit, the agency tossed out more than 600 disciplinary cases tossed out and revised its disciplinary policies.

Though LaGrappe said the testimony in recent weeks could be the last depositions taken in the pending lawsuit, the legal battle could easily stretch out until at least the summer if the case goes to trial.