Former California sheriff's deputy charged with throwing scalding water on mentally ill inmate
CBSN
A former Orange County sheriff's deputy is accused of throwing scalding water on a mentally ill inmate who didn't receive medical treatment for his burns for more than six hours, the county district attorney's office announced Monday.
Guadalupe Ortiz, 47, was charged with felony counts of assault or battery by a public officer and battery with serious bodily injury and could face up to four years in prison if convicted, the DA's office said in a statement.
Ortiz allegedly filled a cup from a hot water dispenser on April 1 and poured it on the hands of an inmate who had refused to take his hands out of a hatch door in his cell at the sheriff's Intake Release Center in Santa Ana, prosecutors said. The DA's statement described the inmate as mentally ill.