A pair of Denver deputy sheriffs received 10-day suspensions for not noticing attacks on two inmates in the county jail when they didn’t properly monitor the surveillance camera into the pod, according to decisions issued last month.

The inmates did not receive medical treatment until a few days after the attacks on Sept. 17, 2022. They were hesitant to tell a deputy who came into their pod what happened because he asked them in front of other inmates if they were all right, though they had visible injuries to their faces and heads, according to the disciplinary decisions.

Deputies Alana Majors and Samone Walker violated the sheriff department’s policy requiring employees pay full attention to their duties, according to the findings by the Denver Department of Public Safety. The investigation determined their conduct put detainees’ safety at risk and went contrary to the sheriff department’s mission of adhering to a high standard of care for detainees. Neither deputy had any disciplinary history relevant to the incident that might merit a harsher penalty, according to the disciplinary decisions.

A group of three inmates beat two others while the two men cleaned the pod’s shower area, according to the August disciplinary decisions. The decisions identify the two men attacked by their initials JH and PM. Surveillance footage captured Majors and Walker having a conversation for more than 15 minutes, at times with a third deputy, during which they were not watching the computer monitor with camera feeds of the pod. Majors looked briefly at the computer twice during the conversation.

“Despite Deputy Majors’ lack of disciplinary history and indications that she would have attended to JH and PM had she noticed them, the fact remains that she did not notice suspicious inmate behaviors, strange movements throughout the pod, or two assaults. As a result, JH and PM were assaulted and injured,” her disciplinary decision said.

The inmates said in interviews for the internal affairs investigation they did not report the attacks. But they said they had clearly visible, still-bleeding injuries to their faces when a deputy came in on rounds later and asked if they were all right. The men said they were uncomfortable with telling the deputy what happened because he asked in front of other inmates.

“I shouldn’t have had to report to anybody,” the inmate JH said in his interview. “I mean, it was clearly all over my face, and when you’re around the people that just assaulted you, you can’t just outright really do anything.”

The deputies said in their investigative interviews they did not notice anything out of the ordinary that day, according to the disciplinary decisions. Walker also said her eyeglasses require her to sit directly in front of the computer to see anything happening. She said she did notice any injuries to inmates during the rounds she did that day.

“…For purposes of aggravation, after JH and PM were assaulted twice, Deputy Walker completed a round but noticed no injuries, made no note of anything being out of the ordinary,” according to the decision imposing her discipline.

Majors said her vantage point did not allow her a clear view of the pod directly. According to Walker, their desk position makes it difficult to hear anything going on inside the pods unless the noise level gets extremely loud.

“I would never intentionally leave anybody injured in a pod. There’s been several times when I have seen injuries and sent people to medical. So to say that I was neglectful or that I just ignored an inmate is just impossible,” Majors said during her interview.