Meecee Parks Alleges He Was Beaten by Guard at Vista Jail

Meecee Parks, formerly known as Sagon Penn, filed a formal complaint Monday with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, alleging that he was beaten by a guard at County Jail in Vista.

Sheriff Jim Roache said Parks was using a jail phone Monday and became irate, causing a disturbance. He said a guard came to check on the commotion and that Parks threw the phone at the guard. Roache said the guard then took Parks to a holding cell.

“We will have internal affairs investigate the allegations against Mr. Parks, or Mr. Penn, or whatever he is calling himself this week,” Roache said. “We’ll decide, after investigation, if internal disciplinary action is warranted.”

Parks told Billie Nelson, the mother of Orned (Chicken) Gabriel, that guards cut his eye in the scuffle. Roache said he did not know Parks’ condition. Gabriel, a friend of Parks, complained to the media about beatings by guards at the El Cajon jail when he was an inmate there in 1988. Last fall, Gabriel accepted a cash settlement from the county in a lawsuit over the beatings.

Parks was sentenced in January to 360 days in jail for battery and violating probation. According to jail officials, he is eligible for parole July 15.

Parks, then named Sagon Penn, was acquitted in 1985 after two widely publicized trails. He was accused of fatally shooting San Diego police Officer Thomas Riggs and wounding Officer Donovan Jacobs and passenger Sarah Pina-Ruiz during what was characterized as a racially motivated police stop.