Public defender: San Francisco jail inmates forced to fight

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Sheriff's deputies arranged and gambled on fights between San Francisco jail inmates and told them to lie if they needed medical attention, an official said.

Public defender Jeff Adachi, an elected official, said that over the past few weeks at least four deputies at San Francisco County Jail threatened inmates with violence or withheld food if they did not fight, the San Francisco Chronicle reported ( http://bit.ly/1xF2S9I ) Thursday.

Adachi said the ringleader in the fights was Deputy Scott Neu, who was accused in 2006 of forcing inmates to perform sexual acts on him. That case was settled out of court.

Harry Stern, an attorney for the San Francisco Deputy Sheriff's Association, the union representing deputies, told The Associated Press on Friday in an email that there "wasn't a ring to be the leader of."

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