Detainee allegedly attacks detention center supervisor — Las Cruces, NM

A detainee who allegedly attacked a detention center staffer in August allegedly attacked another on Monday.

Roger Sambrano allegedly punched a supervisor at the J. Paul Taylor Center in the face, then kicked him in the leg, according to a staff member who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Sambrano, who just turned 18 a month ago, was booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center Monday night just before 9 on a charge of battery on an officer - the same charge he faced after the August attack - according to jail records.

New Mexico State Police officers responded just after 4:30 p.m. Monday after the staff member was “physically assaulted,” said state police Sgt. Tim Johnson, who said the officer’s injuries weren’t serious.

Enrique Knell, spokesman for the Children, Youth and Families Department, which runs the detention center, wasn’t immediately available for comment Tuesday afternoon, but said in a statement after the August attack that CYFD takes such incidents “very seriously.”

“Unfortunately, they are a normal part of day-to-day operations when running any correctional facility, including one for juveniles,” Knell wrote in the August statement. “We continue to be very proactive in improving security at all CYFD facilities. Our number-one goal is to make our facilities safe for the staff who work there, for the clients who are committed there, and the communities who host these facilities.”

Monday’s incident is at least the fifth violent attack at the center this year alone.

Cody Brown, 17, allegedly attacked an officer July 23 after being escorted inside after an altercation with another detainee. Brown allegedly punched the officer in the side of the head, took him to the floor, got on top of him and began punching him in the head and face, according to state police. Less than a month before that incident, Jesus Manuel Loera, 18, of Anthony, N.M., and Joshua Hernandez, 16, of Mesquite, N.M., allegedly overpowered a female detention officer, strangled her and fled, leaving the officer unconscious, bound and gagged in a closet, according to court paperwork. Authorities found the two a few days later hiding in a bedroom closet in a mobile home on Ella Mae Road in Vado, according to state police.

And on June 26, Bobby Aaron Torres and Marquise Elizondo, both 16-year-old Carlsbad natives, and Kino Jay Rodriguez, 16, of Deming, allegedly “kicked, punched and body slammed” another detainee, “even after he was down and in and out of unconsciousness,” leaving the boy with “multiple facial fractures,” according to their indictment paperwork.

In the wake of the escape, facility superintendent Jean Tomlinson was placed on leave, but was reinstated July 19, Knell said.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_19038317

• 10 October 2011

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