The father of a jail inmate, who was killed by fellow prisoners in Theo Lacy jail while deputies watched a baseball game nearby, will receive $600,000 from the county in compensation.

The incident took place on October 5, 2006. Chamberlain, who was in the jail on charges of possessing child pornography, was reportedly quite concerned because of threats he was receiving from other jail inmates. His attorney had in fact contacted the jail authorities a few hours before the attack on Chamberlain to ask them to look into to the threats against Chamberlain.

That evening, Chamberlain was taken by a few other inmates to a hidden cubicle and beaten mercilessly. The abuse ranged from throwing scalding water on him, to stomping his head with boots. Hitting him with fists, they beat him senseless until he passed out. The incident came to light when some of the inmates flagged down the guards. By the time the guards came in, he was dead and the inmates responsible had had time to get away.

And where were the guards all this time? Apparently, they were watching television in a guard receptacle and didn’t hear any commotion. Convenient.

So far, seven inmates have been charged with the attack. One of them has accused deputies Kevin Taylor and Jason Chapluk of instigating the assault by spreading false rumors that Chamberlain was a child molester.

That’s not where the murky role of the guards ends. Deputy Taylor, it was later shown, updated the logbooks to reflect that he offered Chamberlain a chance to shift to another cell, and the victim refused.

This incident seem to be just the tip of a murky iceberg of torture and abuse in the Orange County jail system, which happens to be one of the largest in the nation. Soon after the Orange County Register exposed goings on in the jail in a series of exposes, a special grand jury was launched to look into allegations of abuse at the jail. One of the items on the agenda for the grand jury is the action, or the lack thereof, of the deputies in Chamberlain’s case. Since the Chamberlain case broke into the headlines, other disturbing reports have surfaced about the lawlessness at the jail. There have been complaints about excessive force used on inmates and a videotape showing inmates being Tasered was also leaked.

Regardless of Chamberlain’s crime, which we might add he had not been convicted yet, and no full details of that are available, this sort of behavior is inexcusable in a civilized society. We’re not back in prehistoric times where some bloodletting was an accepted way of settling scores or dispensing your version of justice. When an inmate enters a jail, he has every right to expect to be as safe as he can possibly be. This sort of abuse and killing of an unconvicted presumed innocent man is outrageous and one hopes that all investigations that have been launched help to uncover and fix what is evidently a malaise in Orange County jails.

If not, we need to revise our “innocent until proven guilty,” claim because it seems being jailed for the wrong kind of offense could cost you your life in an Orange County jail.

If you have a family member who was killed due to the negligence of others, you need the help of a top California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.