SAN ANTONIO – An incident report obtained by the KSAT 12 Defenders this week is bringing to light new, horrifying details in the alleged 2017 inmate-on-inmate beatings at the Bexar County Jail, described by one inmate as a "fight club."
Ex-deputy Raul Gonzales, 31, was arrested in March on a four-count indictment for official oppression, violation of civil rights, aggravated assault and engaging in organized crime in connection with the fight club. Authorities said that Gonzales was terminated from the Sheriff's Office in June of 2017 for allowing inmates access to other inmates at the Bexar County Jail, which resulted in physical violence. But they stopped short of elaborating on the allegations made against Gonzales.
RELATED: Guards operated 'fight club' at Bexar County Jail: Lawsuit
In the incident report, one inmate, who KSAT is not naming due to the sensitive nature of the allegations, states he was attacked at least three times over the span of a day and at one point, he said an inmate tried to rape him.
After an open records request by the Defenders, the Sheriff's Office asked the Texas Attorney General's Office for permission to withhold the incident report, however, the Attorney General's Office ruled that the Sheriff's Office must release the documents to KSAT.
RELATED: Former Bexar County deputy arrested on official oppression charge, officials say
The incident report states on the morning of April 17, 2017, an inmate made an outcry to another deputy, alleging that in the past day, Gonzales had opened cell doors and a center door dividing the unit allowing four men, named in an indictment as Daniel Lopez, Gabriel Moreno, Genaro Alvarez and Richard Tavitas. The inmate thought his arm was broken from the attacks, the report states.
According to the incident report, in the first attack, the four men pulled him into a cell and started punching him and kicking him in his face to get his gold tooth plating from his mouth. The group of prisoners were unsuccessful and moved on to another cell with another individual, identified in the report as Rodolfo Carrazco, the report states. The group of prisoners also attacked Carrazco for his gold grill, according to the report.
As the group of inmates attacked Carrazco, the first victim asked Gonzales to be transferred to another unit, the incident report states. Rather than help, Gonzales, through a cell intercom, tipped off the group of inmates beating Carrazco that the first victim had asked to be moved, according to the report.
The group of inmates then went back to the cell where the first victim was and proceeded to beat him a second time.
The incident report states that the inmate was attacked by the four men a third time, but this time, one of the men tried to sexually assault him.
In the third attack, the inmate stated that the four men were "hitting him in the face and stepping on him," when one of his attackers began to yell that he needed to have sex, the report states. Three of the four inmates held the victim down as the fourth attempted to sexually assault the victim, according to the report. Two other prisoners who saw what was happening rescued the inmate from the sexual assault and pulled him into a different cell.
The witnesses corroborated the victim's statements to investigators, the report states. The victim asked to press charges against the four attackers, but it's unclear what came of the cases.
Carrazco, the other victim named in the report, filed a federal lawsuit in March alleging that guards at the Bexar County Jail established and operated an inmates "fight club."
After the lawsuit was filed, the Sheriff's Office said that Gonzales was the deputy implicated in the case:
"We identified the former Deputy in this case as Raul Gonzales. He was a probationary employee that was hired in August of 2016. A criminal case was filed against him in May of 2017. Gonzales was fired by this administration in June 2017 and was given a dishonorable discharge."
Citing Carrazco's lawsuit, the Sheriff's Office said Sunday it was unable to comment beyond the following statement:
"This now former employee was terminated and arrested as a result of the case generated by our Public Integrity Unit. Due to the ongoing nature of this litigation, we are limited on comments about specifics of this case."