SAN JOSE — The latest in a series of trials involving Santa Clara County jail guards accused of brutally beating inmates is expected to begin this week – and once again, prosecutors face a daunting challenge.

Former correctional officers Phillip Abecendario, 28, and Tuan Le, 33, are charged with assaulting chronic offender Ruben Garcia on July 23, 2015, about a month before mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree was beaten to death by three guards in a case that sparked outrage and widespread review of jail policies.

Abecendario and Le have pleaded not guilty, saying they didn’t use any force against Garcia.

If they are convicted after what is expected to be an eight-week trial, they will face a maximum of three years in county jail. Both guards were fired from the Sheriff’s Office, though they could ask an arbitrator to reinstate them if they are found not guilty, one of their lawyers said.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s office has had mixed results in its attempts to hold correctional officers accountable.

In June, three officers were convicted of murder in Tyree’s beating death and are now serving 15 years to life in prison.

But a few weeks later, in late July, a South County jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquitting former guard Thanh Hung Tri of kicking an inmate in the head in 2013. Rosen’s office had initially declined to file charges against Tri in 2014, but resurrected the case after Tyree’s death. Prosecutors have decided not to retry him.

The current case is far from a slam dunk for prosecutor John Chase.

Garcia didn’t report his alleged beating until more than a month later, shortly after he witnessed convicted guards Jereh Lubrin, Rafael Rodriguez and Matt Farris beat Tyree to death. He said he hadn’t planned on complaining, but his case came to light after a homicide detective investigating Tyree’s death asked him what had happened to his face, which was swaddled in white gauze from his head to his chin.

Garcia also has given various statements about which officers assaulted him, at one point blaming two of the guards in the Tyree case. Neither were involved.

He has had trouble recalling whether the alleged attack occurred before or after he got in a fight with another inmate, according to court records. He now says it was before.

However, he did give consistent statements about some aspects of the alleged attack to a courtroom bailiff, paralegal, nurse and his mother, according to court documents filed by the prosecution.

According to Garcia, the attack occurred after he’d been put in an attorney interview room at Main Jail North that was being used as a temporary holding cell and yelled insults at the guards, including calling them “bitches.’’

Garcia said he fell asleep on the floor and awoke to Le grabbing him by the ankles and pulling him to the door. He said he was thrown against the wall and beaten, then put in painful wristlocks, brought to a cell and beaten up again. The attack stopped, he alleges, after Le pulled his head up by the hair and asked, “Who’s the bitch now?’’

The defense is poised to attack Garcia’s credibility, as well as the trustworthiness of other inmates the prosecution plans to call as witnesses, according to court documents. Garcia, who has been out of jail for the past three years, is a former gang member in his 50s with a long criminal record, including convictions for armed robbery and child molestation.

The defense will claim that Garcia fabricated his story in hopes of winning a financial settlement from the county. Tyree’s relatives settled a lawsuit against the county for $3.6 million.

“He’s just looking where he can to make the most money,’’ said Judith Odbert, Abecendario’s lawyer. “I intend to show Mr. Garcia is a liar.”

But the defense faces its own challenges, including the defendants’ “lies’’ to prosecutors, according to court documents filed by the prosecution. Abecendario, for instance, told investigators he did not leave his post on the 6th floor of Main Jail North that night. But log books and surveillance videos show that both he and Le escorted Garcia from the interview room to his cell.

Many inmates also reported to investigators that they saw two guards escort Garcia to a corner cell, naked from the waist down. But Le told investigators that he escorted Garcia to his cell without the assistance of another guard.

The prosecution also contends that Abecendario made the “demonstrably false statement’’ that inmates are not held in interview rooms, even though he put Garcia in one, according to court documents.

Garcia also sent texts about the beating, prosecutors contend. Judge Shelyna V. Brown ruled last week over the defense’s objections that those texts can be used at trial.