November 21, 2005

Heroin suspect freed -
No charges yet in inmate death

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)

Author: Milton J. Valencia

WORCESTER - The suspected provider of heroin that killed a fellow inmate at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction earlier this year has been freed from jail early while the case against him has languished in the district attorney's office.

Victor Vargas, also known as Victor Sanchez, was serving a one-year sentence when he allegedly supplied the heroin that killed John Yovino, 38, of Fitchburg, when both were confined to the jail's Francis J. Deignan facility, a medium-security block. Mr. Vargas, 55, has not been charged in the death but has been identified by jail officials as the drug supplier.

He had been sentenced to jail Jan. 20 after a plea agreement in a separate case that reduced an initial charge of distributing heroin to possession of the drug. He was eligible for parole on July 19 and it was denied, but he was freed five days ago on "good time." According to a federal court order that was established to reduce overcrowding at the jail, a jail official said, an inmate is allowed 7-1/2 days of time off the sentence for each month served, regardless of whether that "good time" was earned.

Mr. Vargas's release is the latest event in an unusual case that has seen charges of distributing heroin filed against him, then later dismissed in what was seen as miscommunication and differences between jail officials and District Attorney John J. Conte's office. But yesterday, Jeffrey A. Turco, deputy superintendent of the jail, said the case remains open in cooperation with the district attorney's office, and that charges will be brought at an appropriate time.

"When it is appropriate, a strong case will be able to be brought," Mr. Turco said, "but those responsible for bringing drugs and distributing them in the jail will be held responsible."

It was Mr. Yovino's 11th time in the jail; he had been serving a two-month sentence for violating probation on an assault conviction when he overdosed the morning of Feb. 17. A medical examiner's report revealed he was taking Zoloft, an antidepressant, that combined with heroin in killing him.

After the overdose, jail officials quickly locked down the Deignan facility and ordered inmates to undergo drug testing. Of the facility's 120 inmates, at least 16 tested positive for drugs. In a reaction to the death, an existing plan to eliminate contact visits - in which inmates can come into physical contact with visitors - was instituted immediately to stop the smuggling of drugs into the jail. Jail officials said they were sure the drugs that killed Mr. Yovino were smuggled into the jail through a contact visit but have released no further information, and the case was referred to Mr. Conte's office.

Two months later, a Telegram and Gazette article detailed the case, and showed investigators had focused on Mr. Vargas, originally from Fitchburg. His son, Soniell Sanchez, 25, was also in the Deignan facility at the time of the overdose, serving a sentence for assault and battery on a child, and was identified by jail officials as a possible conspirator in providing the drugs to Mr. Yovino. Both father and son have a history of dealing drugs. In 2002, Soniell Sanchez was sentenced to 90 days after investigators found heroin in his jail cell while he was already serving a drug distribution conviction, according to court records.

Neither Mr. Conte's office nor the jail would comment on the investigation into the death, but several sources familiar with the case said investigators were told that Mr. Yovino had drugs smuggled into the jail through a contact visit, hid the drugs in his anus and then sold them to fellow inmates, including two grams for Mr. Yovino. The next morning, Mr. Yovino overdosed.

His mother, Cecile Yovino, said Thursday that she hasn't been contacted by any detectives or jail staff. She did not want to comment any further, but soon after the death she had questioned how drugs had gotten into the jail. She said her son was no angel, but she figured he'd be away from the drugs that had plagued his past in Fitchburg. "All I hope is they find out what happened, and that another mother doesn't go through what I'm going through."

In June, in Clinton District Court, jail officials filed their own charges against Mr. Vargas: possession of heroin as a subsequent offense, possession of heroin with intent to distribute and possession of heroin within 1,000 feet of a school zone (Salem Covenant Community Nursery School). Court records accompanying the charges confirmed fellow inmates told investigators they witnessed Mr. Vargas selling drugs in the jail.

The day the charges were filed, however, a clerk magistrate dismissed them for what was called a lack of evidence. At least one lawyer speaking at the time said it was unusual for a clerk magistrate to dismiss charges that had already been approved by a lower clerk, which had occurred when the jail first filed the charges.

Privately, jail officials expressed frustration with the dismissal and delay of a case they said is solid. However, the action had been sought by jail officials without involvement from the district attorney's office, the ones responsible for investigating and prosecuting deaths at the jail. Mr. Conte would not comment on the dismissal of the case at that time, and did not return multiple calls for comment made recently to his office.

Jail officials appealed Clerk Magistrate Leonard F. Tomaiolo's order of dismissal, but it is not known whether that appeal has been pursued.

On Thursday, Mr. Turco said jail investigators have since been working closely with detectives assigned to Mr. Conte's office, and said both sides agree a case would be better if brought to a grand jury rather than Clinton District Court. Grand juries consider Superior Court cases, felonies, but Mr. Turco could not say what charges prosecutors would seek. He could not say if a grand jury has been convened, but a court clerk said yesterday that the November sitting of the grand jury had concluded. Mr. Turco said any further information would have to be provided by Mr. Conte's office.

"In any case, it's not about bringing the case, it's winning the conviction," Mr. Turco said. "The matter is very much an open case."

July 21, 2005

Prisoner charged in inmate's death -
Glodis calls indictment ‘symbolic'

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)

Author: Milton J. Valencia

WORCESTER - A jail inmate was charged yesterday with murder in the beating death of a fellow inmate at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston, making it the first indictment in a series of deaths that plagued the new administration of Sheriff Guy W. Glodis.

Mr. Glodis said the indictment is symbolic for his new zero-tolerance policy promising charges for any crime within the jail, and that it's testimony to his staff's cooperation with District Attorney John J. Conte.

"The bigger picture here is about public safety and facing crime, whether it's occurring in Worcester, in Fitchburg, Southbridge or in the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction," the sheriff said.

Dennis Hadley, 49, formerly of Rhode Island, is expected to be arraigned in Superior Court in the killing of Daniel McMullen, 42, formerly of Douglas.

Mr. Hadley allegedly beat Mr. McMullen on Feb. 3 after a fight over playing cards, sending him to the hospital to be treated with 13 stitches. About seven hours later, Mr. McMullen returned to St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center, complaining of continuing chest pains. He died 20 days later after slipping into a coma. His sister told doctors to disconnect life support after they told her there was nothing more medicine could do.

Mr. Hadley, who had been in jail awaiting trial on burglary charges stemming from Uxbridge and Milford, had been charged by the jail with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a shod foot), after the beating. After Mr. McMullen died, Mr. Conte's office initiated an investigation, and he has been held without bail since.

The district attorney said at the time that he would conduct an in-depth investigation, looking at the beating and also at how jail and hospital staff responded.

Yesterday, he said "the investigation as far as I know it is complete," with the indictment of Mr. McMullen.

Mr. Glodis said the district attorney had the authority to investigate the death at the jail. But he also said he welcomed the investigation as part of his open-door philosophy, whether it is to the public, the media or law enforcement. The sheriff had called for a second-degree murder charge in what he called a heinous, unprovoked attack.

"This is symbolic of the new philosophy of zero tolerance at the jail," the sheriff said. "We're not only serious about drugs, but violence as well.

"We've sent the message since Day One that criminal behavior will not be tolerated, especially heinous crimes that happen behind bars."

Mr. McMullen painted a poignant picture of life in jail in letters he sent home to family and friends. He had been sentenced to a year in jail for driving under the influence of alcohol as a second offense. Soon after he arrived at the facility, he asked to be moved to protective custody because he was gay, and feared he would be targeted because of his lifestyle. None of the letters indicated he was harassed for being gay, however.

Instead, they described a subculture within the jail, where inmates harass and beat up one another to gain power. Many times, Mr. McMullen wrote in letters to friends, he had his canteen items stolen by fellow inmates. He fought back, but also described being fatigued with the lifestyle.

"I'd like to know where the C is in the word corrections. Around here, it's just legal crime ... feeding on the weak. Report it and you're told, `Welcome to jail,'" he said in one letter to a friend.

In January, he was moved to a protective custody unit, called the J Block, after complaining that inmates urinated on his bed and threw stink bombs in his cell. Stink bombs are milk cartons that have turned sour and release an odor after they're thrown against a wall and burst.

In the J Block, Mr. McMullen also had distrust for Mr. Hadley, who called himself Jesus. He wrote in letters to friends to be careful what they wrote to him, because Mr. Hadley liked to read and would steal his mail.

On the night of Feb. 3, Mr. McMullen accused Mr. Hadley of stealing his playing cards, and then a fight broke out. In between visits to the hospital, Mr. McMullen wrote in what is believed to be his last letter that Mr. Hadley was wearing massive black boots. "Anyway, still have all my teeth," he said in the letter home. "Nobody has been able to knock those out yet!"

A death certificate indicated Mr. McMullen died of blunt trauma to the chest.

Court records indicate the black boots Mr. Hadley wore were confiscated as evidence. Mr. Hadley's family, living in Arizona, have refused comment, saying they fear it would jeopardize any case against him. A sister has said, however, that Mr. Hadley suffered mental illness. He told her he did not know Mr. McMullen died, and thought law enforcement officials were fabricating the death in attempts to scare him.

Beatrice McMullen, Mr. McMullen's sister, said yesterday she still has suspicions about her brother's death, questioning how one person could have inflicted so much damage.

Nevertheless, she wishes her brother had never been put in such a position in the first place, she said. She said he wasn't a violent criminal. Her brother, she said, had problems, but he was the type of guy who never bounced a bank check. He should have been in an alcohol-treatment facility, or a center for non-violent offenders.

"He didn't belong in there with all these people," she said. "To be in prison. Not in that type of situation."

She also said the jail should be held responsible, for housing her brother with another inmate awaiting trial when he was supposed to be placed in a protective custody unit.

"It's not Hadley's fault, it's not my brother's fault, it's the system's fault," she said. "He died a very horrible death."

Mr. McMullen's death was the first in a series that cast a cloud over the Glodis administration. The administration had been in office less than two months when he died. A week later, another inmate died of a heroin overdose. Soon after, several new policies were put in place restricting who could visit the jail.

Moreover, at least two inmates have committed suicide inside the facility, and at least one other died of what the jail called natural, medical causes. Mr. Conte's office is investigating.

June 25, 2005

Inmate's heroin charge is dropped -
County jail sought court action without DA

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)

Author: Milton J. Valencia

Criminal charges against a jail inmate suspected of providing the heroin that killed a fellow inmate were granted yesterday but then dismissed by a court clerk. Jail officials had sought the court action without involvement of the district attorney's office.

District Attorney John J. Conte has been investigating the death of John Yovino, 38, since he overdosed Feb. 27 at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston. Mr. Conte said Thursday that the investigation is ongoing.

Victor Vargas, 54, who has several aliases and is also from Fitchburg, was identified as a suspect soon after the death, with several witnesses telling investigators he had heroin smuggled into the jail, later packaged it and sold it, some to Mr. Yovino. Both were confined to the jail's Francis J. Deignan facility, a medium-security block. Mr. Vargas was serving a sentence for distributing heroin, and Mr. Yovino was incarcerated on assault charges.

Yesterday, an assistant clerk magistrate in Clinton District Court approved a complaint jail officials filed seeking charges of possession of heroin, possession with intent to distribute heroin, and distribution within 1,000 feet of a school zone (Salem Covenant Community Nursery School), said Jeffrey Turco, deputy superintendent of the jail. He provided several documents showing the complaint was approved and that an arraignment was scheduled for July 12.

However, later yesterday afternoon, the clerk magistrate of Clinton District Court faxed a letter to the jail saying the charges would be "vacated," because there wasn't sufficient evidence, according to a copy of the letter Mr. Turco provided. The letter is handwritten on a sheet of paper and signed by the clerk magistrate, Leonard F. Tomaiolo.

"(T)he previous allowance is hereby vacated and the application for complaint is dismissed, there being no probable cause for its issuance," the letter reads.

The Telegram & Gazette sought to independently obtain the documents from Clinton District Court yesterday. However, a court clerk said at 4:15 p.m. that Mr. Tomaiolo had left for the day 10 minutes earlier. There was no entry in the computer system of Mr. Vargas being charged. However, complaints that are not approved are not entered into the court computer system. The court clerk said any record of the complaint application, and the clerk magistrate's letter to the jail, would have been locked in Mr. Tomaiolo's office and not available yesterday. Mr. Tomaiolo did not return a telephone call for comment made to his office earlier in the afternoon, before he left for the business day. A clerk said he was in a meeting when the call was made.

Mr. Turco said yesterday that his law enforcement division will appeal the clerk magistrate's dismissal of the already approved complaint to a judge, questioning the basis of rejecting a complaint that he said was based on months of investigatory work. He said state police detectives assigned to Mr. Conte's office were involved in the investigatory stage of the process, and that there had been cooperation between the jail and the district attorney's office.

Mr. Turco acknowledged that the case fell under Mr. Conte's jurisdiction because Mr. Yovino died and state law gives the district attorney authority to investigate any death at the jail. However, he said, Mr. Conte's office is considering manslaughter charges, while jail officials thought it appropriate to move forward now with the drug possession charges.

Mr. Turco said the jail has instituted a zero-tolerance policy against any wrongdoing at the jail. While the investigation continues into possible manslaughter charges against Mr. Vargas, for allegedly providing the drugs that killed Mr. Yovino, there was sufficient evidence to bring possession of heroin charges in district court, he said.

"We need to show this type of activity will not be tolerated," Mr. Turco said, noting that 17 inmates in the Deignan facility tested positive for heroin the day Mr. Yovino died, including Mr. Vargas. There have been several reforms at the jail since Mr. Yovino died, Mr. Turco said, including the elimination of contact visits in which inmates can touch their visitors. Jail officials believe Mr. Vargas' family members smuggled at least five grams of heroin to him through the visits.

"As we try to crack down on the criminal element occurring in this facility, we look forward to cooperation from the courts in order to effectuate our zero-tolerance policy," Mr. Turco said.

Mr. Turco said the jail has a positive relationship with Mr. Conte's detectives and court officials, but said he was "surprised and amazed to then receive a fax transmission" dismissing the charges.

It was not clear whether Mr. Conte's office had any involvement in the dismissal of the charges. The district attorney's office is responsible for prosecutions in Worcester County.

Mr. Conte has kept control of death investigations under his office in the past. Earlier in the year, he convinced the state Department of Public Safety to delay the release of an investigatory report on the death of a Shrewsbury man on an amusement ride, saying it would compromise his own probe. The report was eventually released, however. Mr. Conte did not return numerous telephone calls for comment made to his office yesterday.

"We stand by our application for the criminal complaint," Mr. Turco said.

According to the complaint filed in Clinton District Court, provided by Mr. Turco, investigators interviewed at least four inmates who said they saw Mr. Vargas with heroin the day Mr. Yovino died. One witness said he saw Mr. Vargas give at least 1

gram of heroin to Mr. Yovino. Another said Mr. Vargas asked him if he wanted to buy any of the drug.

Investigators also have transcripts of telephone calls Mr. Yovino made to a relative, telling her to give $400 to a woman who would come by the relative's house. Investigators believe the money was used to pay for the drugs smuggled into the jail. One witness told detectives he heard Mr. Vargas and Mr. Yovino negotiate a $400 payment for a gram of heroin.

"This is based on dozens of interviews, tape-recorded interviews," Mr. Turco said. "Our investigators conducted a several months long investigation, traveling to different parts of the country to corroborate information they received."