Simon said he's been to "prisons, jails, lockups all over the United States, federal penitentiaries, and as well as some other countries, Mexico, Latin America and Asia." He said he expected to hear complaints from the inmates about the jail.
"I guess the thing that impressed me the most, and I mean impressed in the deepest sense of the word, was the fear in these guys," Simon said. "They were forced to do this and they did not want to do this, and they were also afraid of being hurt. They were caught because they really did not know what to do. If they spoke up and they did not get the proper backup, what would happen to them? If they did not speak up, what was going to be their fate?"
Simon's report consists solely of minutes from interviews with five inmates, including Garcia and Stanley Harris, who said they were forced to fight each other twice.
Adachi said they did not want to go public with the investigation yet, but he learned a third fight was being planned in the next few days.
"These were fights in which these deputies actually had fighters that they were training," Adachi said. "They were forcing them to do pushups and exercise to get in training for these fights."
The head of the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs' Association, Eugene Cerbone, said he does not believe the inmates.
"They’re only allegations," Cerbone said. "I don’t believe in them. I believe in my deputies before I believe people who are committing crimes in the city of San Francisco."
Cerbone said he'd spoken today to the deputies -- Scott Neu, Eugene Jones, Clifford Chiba and Evan Staehely -- to assure them they would have legal representation through the firm Rains Lucia Stern. The law firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A sheriff's department spokesman said the four deputies were placed on paid administrative leave.
The public defender played recorded phone conversations for reporters today he said were with Ricardo Garcia and Stanley Harris.
"Basically, I feel scared for my life," Garcia said in the recorded conversation. "I don't know when they're gonna come and, you know, try to basically attack or anything ... I'm kind of just walking on eggshells."
Adachi said Garcia is about 5-foot-9 and weighs about 150 pounds, and Harris is 6-foot-6 and weighs more than 350 pounds. Harris and Garcia, as well as other inmates Simon interviewed, said Neu would force Harris to do pushups and other exercises to humiliate him and "train" him for fights.
"In some ways, law enforcement in this town is a little incestuous," Mirkarimi said. "What I want to make sure is we answer the question of a thorough investigation, and my choices are to invite either the attorney general of California, who’s the former DA here, or the U.S. Department of Justice, and I think the DOJ has the right tools."
