Ex-guard sues over beating
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A former St. Martin Parish correctional officer claims in a federal lawsuit that a federal prisoner at the parish’s correctional center beat her while under the influence of crystal methamphetamine he received from a makeshift lab in the jail.
The suit was filed Monday on behalf of Bernice Broussard and it names inmate Arthur Basaldua, Warden Reginald Clues of the St. Martin Parish Correctional Center II, and St. Martin Parish Sheriff Ronald J. Theriot as defendants.
Broussard alleges in the suit that she had a confrontation with Basaldua on June 6, 2008, while working a night shift at the center. The suit says Basaldua threatened that he “would get” her.
Just before 3 a.m. on June 7, 2008, Basaldua took a padlock, previously issued by prison officials, put it in a sock and waited outside of his cell for Broussard to return, the suit says. Basaldua could enter and exit his cell at will, the suit says.
Broussard returned with a cleaning crew at 3 a.m. and Basaldua attacked her, “striking her multiple times in the head and body with the sock and padlock,” the suit says.
The suit further alleges that Basaldua disclosed to Capt. E.J. Melancon, deputy warden, that he was under the influence of illegal drugs during the attack.
Basaldua obtained the drugs from trusties of Correctional Center II who operated a methamphetamine lab in the building on the prison grounds known as the “White House,” near the laundry facility where many trusties work, the suit says.
The suit alleges that Clues knew about the methamphetamine lab and that trusties distributed drugs to inmates while handing out laundry.
The suit alleges that Theriot provided negligent training and supervision of his employees.
It further alleges that the jail had a less-than-adequate inmate-to-officer ratio, and certain surveillance equipment in the jail was not working.
Maj. Ginny Higgins, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, said the department had not been served with or notified of any such lawsuit.
In April, Basaldua was sentenced to life in prison by U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter for his role as the alleged ring leader of a drug smuggling group in Louisiana.
Prosecutors accused the group of shipping crystal methamphetamine in stolen vehicles from California to be distributed in Lafayette and Iberia parishes. Basaldua faced additional charges while incarcerated in St. Martin Parish following an investigation that resulted in the arrests of three corrections officers accused of bringing drugs into the center and distributing them to the inmates.
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