L.A. County deputy who kneeled on inmate’s head will not be charged, D.A.’s memo says
A corrections officer at the Hallock Correctional Facility in the L.A. County Jail was charged with assault and battery Thursday but not arrested for other allegations stemming from an altercation in November, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has confirmed to NBC News.
The district attorney’s office charged Matthew Delgado in a criminal complaint with two felony counts of assault and battery, a felony count of false imprisonment and a misdemeanor count of battery, according to the criminal complaint.
Officer Matthew Delgado. Courtesy of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
Delgado didn’t enter a plea Thursday morning, with bail set at $110,000. Delgado’s lawyer, David Schulman, could not be reached.
The altercation between two prisoners had been previously reported in a November 9 court document. It said that Delgado “kneeled on inmate Bexley” while he was in handcuffs after handcuffing him on his way to the shower.
The complaint, filed in superior court, alleges that the officer “kneeled on the victim’s head, causing him to fall to the floor on his back.”
Bexley’s mother, Kristina Kates, told NBC News on Thursday that she didn’t know what the district attorney’s office had decided to charge Delgado with after reviewing his medical records and his “credible and consistent” testimony.
“It’s like the elephant in my living room right now,” Kates said. “I still cannot believe this happened.”
In a statement Thursday, the sheriff’s department also declined to provide additional details about the Nov. 9 incident that led to the criminal complaint filed against Delgado, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.
“Any allegation of police misconduct — any allegation that officers were involved in misconduct — is a matter of intense concern to the City and County of Los Angeles, a matter of great concern to law enforcement officials, but it is also a matter