Court rules for Ohio business that challenged birth control mandate

WASHINGTON — A divided appeals court panel has sided with Ohio business owners who challenged the birth control mandate under the new federal healthcare law.

The business owners are two brothers, Francis and Philip M. Gilardi, who own Freshway Foods and Freshway Logistics of Sidney, Ohio, and challenged the mandate on religious grounds. They say the mandate to provide contraceptive coverage would force them to violate their Roman Catholic beliefs and moral values by providing contraceptives such as the morning-after pill for their employees.

The law already exempts houses of worship from the requirement.

The ruling Friday by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is one of several on the birth control issue, which will probably be resolved by the Supreme Court. There are at least three other rulings by federal appeals courts on the mandate: One sided with Oklahoma businesses, and two sided with the Obama administration in challenges brought by Pennsylvania and Michigan companies.

Writing for the majority, Judge Janice Rogers Brown wrote that the mandate "trammels the right of free exercise — a right that lies at the core of our constitutional liberties — as protected by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

Brown, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said that the mandate presented the Gilardis with a Hobson's choice.

"They can either abide by the sacred tenets of their faith, pay a penalty of over $14 million and cripple the companies they have spent a lifetime building," he said, "or they become complicit in a grave moral wrong."

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Along an Arizona highway, dust storms are a deadly part of life

The intense dust that blew through a stretch of highway, killing three people and injuring others Tuesday, is nothing new for the residents of a southern Arizona town between Tucson and Phoenix.

Every couple years a dense ribbon of dust — roughly a quarter-mile high and 20 to 30 miles long — causes a wreck along the same stretch of highway, near the town of Picacho, said Ken Waters, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Phoenix.

Edward Bruce Martan, 63, was born and raised in this town and said he can almost sense when a ribbon is about to hit.

"You can feel it," he said. "It's when a cool weather front comes through. You can just predict it. It's the same place every time. Milepost 214."

Since 2009, at least four fatal crashes — including last week's 19-vehicle pileup — occurred on that stretch of Interstate 10, Arizona officials said. The latest also injured 12 people, making it the worst so far, Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Bart Graves said.

The area is known for the natural landmark of Picacho Peak. The dark, jagged butte looms within Picacho Peak State Park, where winds are rarely an issue, Ranger James Head said.

"You don't get these ribbons out here," he said.

The veteran ranger parked his truck at Sunset Vista on the southeastern edge of the park and pointed north.

A mile and a half away, the park's carpet of saguaros, palos verdes and volcanic rock tapers off into a clear, sandy plain below. Barely any weeds. Mostly dust.

Waters says there are several kinds of dust phenomena in this region of Arizona.

One can occur between June and September, triggered by monsoons. These are large-scale dust storms that resemble a huge wall of dust — sometimes thousands of feet high and up to 100 miles wide — traveling as much as 200 miles across the state. Sparked by a storm, they produce a very strong outflow of winds that push away from the thunderstorm.

Then there is the kind that occurred here last week, known as a dust ribbon because it resembles a narrow but dense band of dust that creates zero visibility. These ribbons usually arrive with a cold front, when the wind is blowing in from the southwest.

Tuesday's pileup won't be the last, Waters said. "You have no warning or indication of them," he said, "and people try to drive through and all you need is for two cars to collide because they can't see each other … and it can just cause this horrible situation."

Most locals know better than to get on the roads during rough winds.

For Martan, dust and wind have always been part of life in this unincorporated area of about 400 people.

When he was a child, some of the dust storms were an opportunity for play. Martan and his friends would fashion swords out of scrap wood, fighting the tumbleweeds bouncing toward them from the south.

As a teenager, he once had to pull his Volkswagen Bug off the highway when he got caught in such a storm. After the storm passed through, he said, a cloud of dust still lingered in the car's interior.

"It was so dusty I couldn't see the instrument panel in my car," Martan said and let out a chuckle.

A graying man with a weathered face who is often followed by an entourage of six female Chihuahuas, Martan says he's seen the dust ribbon aftermath firsthand. He's a tow truck driver and responds to many of the crashes.

The dust gets in his ears. His eyes. His lungs. Everywhere.

"Everyone just kind of accepts it," Martan said.

He then brushed some dust off his work shirt.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

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Clippers FYI: Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan try to get going on line

When DeAndre Jordan steps to the free-throw line these days, the Clippers center seeks inspiration wherever he can find it.

When Blake Griffin steps to the line, the All-Star power forward seeks peace of mind.

These new mental approaches seemed to help Jordan and Griffin prosper at the line Friday night when the game hung in the balance against Sacramento.

Both of the Clippers' young big men have struggled at the line throughout their NBA careers. Jordan, 25, is a 42.4% free-throw shooter in five-plus seasons; Griffin, 24 and starting his fourth pro season, is at 61.1%.

But on this one night, with the outcome still uncertain, both delivered from the line to help push the Clippers past the Kings.

"I think Blake is a good foul shooter and I think DJ can be," Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said. "But I don't worry about it. If they make them, they make them."

After the Sacramento game, Jordan stood in the locker room and joked, saying, "A wise man known as the Great Philosopher, the Shaqtus, the Big Shamrock, once said, 'It's about when you make them.'"

Jordan laughed, as did his teammates.

Of course Jordan was referring to former NBA center Shaquille O'Neal, who was a career 52.7% free-throw shooter but always maintained he would make them when they counted the most.

Jordan also told a story about how teammate Jamal Crawford told him to bank in a free throw late in the Kings game, and that made Jordan laugh and relax enough to make two pressure free throws with 2 minutes 39 seconds left to increase the Clippers' lead to five points.

He may be shooting just 40% (eight for 20) from the line this season, but Jordan has an ally in Rivers.

"Doc is definitely a motivator," said Jordan, who was four for six against the Kings. "He has told me he doesn't care if I shoot them over the backboard, just as long as I try to make one out of two. Then I'm going to come down and help us get a [defensive] stop."

Griffin was eight for eight from the line against the Kings, including two for the final margin in the Clippers' 110-101 victory. He's at 61.5% (16 for 26) after three games, but that's after going three for 10 against the Lakers in the season opener Tuesday night.

"That Lakers game, I don't know. I was like out of mind. I wasn't shooting. I was thinking too much," said Griffin, whose 66% success rate last season was the best of his nascent NBA career. "I haven't shot that poorly in a while. But when I step to the line now, I feel like they are going to go in. I never shy away from going to the line."

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @BA_Turner

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California vintners branch out to Italian grapes

Italian immigrants were instrumental in founding the California wine industry, yet when winemakers sought to upgrade the image of their wines in the mid-20th century, they followed the then-current fashion and went with French grapes — Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. Though perhaps better suited to California's climate, Italian varietals didn't have much cachet at the time and were basically relegated to blends and low-cost jug wines.

Steve Matthiasson of Matthiasson Wines in Napa Valley thinks that was shortsighted. "There are thousands and thousands of Italian varietals, but for the most part they are Mediterranean varieties and can handle very dry summers and heat," he says. Perfect for California.

He cites Aglianico and Vermentino, both well suited to the hot climate of the Central Valley. He thinks the red grape Teraldogo could do great along the coast. He's planted the minerally white Greco di Tufo in Rutherford and will make the first wine from it next year. He's excited about Ribolla Gialla from Friuli too, and blends some Tocai Friulano into his Matthiasson Napa Valley white.

He's not alone among the Italian converts.

Steve Clifton, co-owner of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay specialist Brewer-Clifton, has had Italian varietals on his mind since 1995, when he founded Palmina, his Central Coast winery dedicated exclusively to Italian varietals.

He always appreciated their acidity, which is characteristic of wines meant to go with food. And when he started making wine in Santa Barbara, he found what he thinks is the ideal climate — the coldest wine region in California — for Italian varietals.

At Palmina, Clifton says he tries hard to "not make emulations of Italian wines but translations." If his wines don't taste grown in Santa Barbara County, then he's somehow missed the mark. In all, he makes nine Italian varietals, ranging in price from about $18 for the rosé to $90 for the single-vineyard Nebbiolo.

Another early pioneer was Jim Clendenen of Au Bon Climat, who has been making Italian varietals under the Clendenen Family Vineyards and Il Podere dell'Olivos labels for more than two decades. After years of working with Italian varietals, he's more optimistic about the whites. "If we understand that Italian varietals have to be much more delicate than California Chardonnays and pick with balance, with fruit as a focus and don't get too intricate, we can make delicious white wine."

Red wines, he feels, are a much more difficult proposition. "You're going to have to have patience. You can't have products that are hard or mysterious, or years from drinkability." 

Inspired by the Teroldego of Elisabetta Foradori in Trentino, Clendenen admits that he probably makes it with more of a Pinot Noir sensibility. He also thinks Tocai Friulano is a wonderful grape. At one point, he worked with some Sicilian varieties. They did brilliantly in California, but he couldn't sell them. 

One new producer to jump on the bandwagon is Bill Sanger, a first-generation Italian American. When he bought an old property near Santa Ynez primarily planted with olive trees, he planted a fairly large block of Sangiovese, Tuscany's red grape. The climates are nearly identical, Sanger says.

His first wines under the Marianello label (a name that combines the first names of his grandparents Maria and Nello) are just out. Marianello Cielo Rubio is a blend of 75% Sangiovese with Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah and Cabernet Sauvignon.

That's pretty mainstream compared with what Matthiasson is doing. He's even planted the oddball red grape Schioppettino around his house in Napa Valley. "I could grow Pinot, but with Pinot you pretty much know how it's going to turn out." With Schioppettino, he doesn't have a clue. "That's why it's so much fun!" 

irene.virbila@latimes.com

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Jonathan Gold | L.A. restaurant review: Girasol reflects Chris Jacobson's journey

If you have spent much time in L.A.'s farmers markets, you have probably run into C.J., Chris Jacobson, an affable chef, tall enough to be an NBA power forward, who seems to know every farmer in town. He worked on the line for a while at the old Campanile, where everybody called him Stretch, and he ran the Yard, a small gastropub in Santa Monica known for its beer list and fish tacos but which he managed to nudge toward fine dining at the end.

As you might expect from a young Los Angeles chef, Jacobson did his time on TV, including "Top Chef," and he consulted for restaurant owners more interested in building a bar crowd than in nurturing cuisine. He did his share of pop-ups. He was well-liked, if not regarded as a star. And then in an odd, unprecedented move, he went to Copenhagen for a season or two to work for René Redzepi at Noma, whose kitchen is behind the current hyper-locavore movement and is often considered the best restaurant in the world. Jacobson already knew how to cook. At Noma, he learned how to forage, how to express subtle flavors and how to think about food; how to express his native Southern California on the plate.

Girasol, really Jacobson's first restaurant of his own, in many ways resembles a typical Studio City place, located on a fast avenue lined with more condos than cafes, occupying a building that has been more restaurants than I can remember, in a neighborhood where the sidewalk is empty but the parking spaces are full. The Tujunga Avenue cafe district is just around the corner but seems a dozen miles away.

PHOTOS: Inside Girasol

But when you settle at a table, you will notice that the walls and ceiling of the dining room are covered with what the designer must have conceived as a sunflower motif — the sensation is close to what it must feel like to be on the inside of Audrey, the carnivorous blossom in "Little Shop of Horrors." The service is cheerful in a way that it rarely manages to be on the other side of the hill.

If you happen in on a Sunday morning, you will find most of the customers sipping mimosas and nibbling smoked salmon as they would almost everywhere on Ventura Boulevard, although the mimosas may be tricked out with fresh-squeezed cactus fruit, and the salmon has been smoked over a foraged herb called rabbit tobacco, which gives it an odd, almost whiskey-like edge. Girasol is that weird hybrid: a restaurant tame enough to host a baby shower brunch but advanced enough to offer at that brunch not just brioche French toast or ricotta pancakes with sautéed strawberries but also a vivid green grilled-octopus gazpacho garnished with pungent Vietnamese herbs, as well as steak and eggs with house-fermented local black walnuts that taste like spherical A.1. Steak Sauce with a crunch.

You could probably have dinner here without noticing the detail Jacobson puts into most of his dishes: the scattering of crisped lentils under the salad of chocolate persimmon and burrata; the tart pop of finger limes, the pomegranates of the citrus world, with the raw hamachi; or the charred pine needles that give fragrance to the Wagyu flat iron steak. The satay is made from pork marinated, sliced into thin ribbons and compressed into intricate patterns — it basically looks like chunks on the skewer, but the grilled meat is delicate, almost fragile. The pork chop is moistened with a reduction of juiced clover, the same stuff you may have rolled around in as a kid, and comes with charred nectarines that have collapsed in on themselves. It's not quite a gastropub.

Jacobson's talent may lie less in expressing L.A.'s cultural diversity — his less-than-spicy all-mussel version of the ceviche aguachile is dull — than in layering the sunny fragrances of California onto what might seem to be straightforward New American cooking: the branch of yarrow with the meatballs; the spark of acid from mandarin segments that enliven grilled cauliflower sauced with muskier puréed cauliflower; sliced fruit dusted with the piney tangerine scent of fir needles gathered in the local mountains at 4,000 feet; crisp-skinned sunchokes, roasted until their soft flesh becomes almost liquid, tossed with roasted local medjool dates.

He's even able to put a twist on the beet and goat cheese salad, an L.A. standard at least since Wolfgang Puck introduced it at Spago in the '80s, by arranging the tiny roasted vegetables into a kind of edible ikebana with flowers, sliced berries and an herbalist's manual's worth of leaves. The dish, like the restaurant, is never quite the same twice.

jonathan.gold@latimes.com

Girasol

After "Top Chef" and Noma, Chris Jacobson finally gets a place of his own.

LOCATION

11334 Moorpark St., Studio City, (818) 924-2323.

PRICES

Shared appetizers, $10-$24; main courses, $18-$42.

DETAILS

Dinner 6-10 p.m. Sundays to Wednesdays, 6-11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. Credit cards accepted. Beer and wine. Valet parking.

RECOMMENDED DISHES

Grilled meatballs, beets and berries, pan-roasted cauliflower.

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Chef Michael Cimarusti brings the heat to baked shellfish

A pristine oyster on the half shell, unadorned, fresh, cold and briny, is a near-perfect thing. A properly shucked littleneck clam, alone, or with a drop or two of lemon and Tabasco, will make you say mmmm, every time.

But just because these shellfish are so good raw doesn't mean we shouldn't cook them too. Properly cooked shellfish is a wonderful thing. The cooking intensifies and transforms the flavor. Oysters especially change completely when cooked, seeming rich and fatty in the best way, while in the raw state they are anything but.

You've got to be careful when cooking either type of shellfish, though. When overcooked, neither is good, so mind the time and temperature.

The initial preparation is the same for raw and cooked. You need to find a good source to buy from and most likely pre-order to get exactly what you want. Clams and oysters will come from the vendor with tags, stating when and where they were harvested. Look for shellfish that has been harvested within the last four or five days.

Once you get them home, keep them refrigerated or on ice in a cooler that has a drain. Keep them covered with wet paper towels, a damp newspaper or seaweed when storing them in the fridge.

Oysters and clams need to be washed well before any type of preparation. I like to place them in a sink with crushed or cubed ice and enough water to nearly cover them. Use a wooden spoon to stir the ice water vigorously for several minutes. The ice will serve as an abrasive, removing most of the sand and debris from the surface of the shells. Any that remains can be removed with a bristle brush.

This process will also deeply chill the shellfish and make them a bit easier to open. You will need a clam knife for the clams and an oyster knife for the oysters. Remember, opening clams and oysters is not a test of strength and actually requires very little physical effort. The best shuckers make it look easy, and it often is, but you will need to do it often to become proficient.

Baked shellfish dishes rely heavily on the freshness of the clams and oysters, so you will need to find the best that you can. Open the clams and oysters just before you are ready to prepare the dish.

Oysters Rockefeller is a recipe that we all know by name. A Rockefeller is basically an oyster topped with spinach that has been cooked down with fennel, Pernod and a bit of cream and butter.

The deviled oysters are even more simple to prepare and equally delicious. Once shucked, the oysters are glazed with sauce, some white bread crumbs and a little butter before being baked. They are finished under the broiler to create a crispy crust. The oysters are garnished with some red jalapeño and sliced scallion. Both recipes should be served hot from the oven with shellfish forks. Once you've eaten the oyster from the shell, you'll want to slurp the juice and scrape the crusty bits from the shells.

The baked clam dish relies on the flavor of a compound butter to which you will add bread crumbs and a bit of panko crumbs. You will need to roll out the butter thinly and evenly before placing it in the freezer overnight. Once chilled, the butter is cut into a shape that is similar to the size of the clam. Simply pop the butter on top of the shucked clams, bake for three minutes and then broil them until they are well browned and bubbly.

Eat them immediately and drink the broth from their shells, repeating often. You'll find that a half-dozen or so will do for most people, or you might want to serve them at a cocktail party as passed hors d'oeuvres. Mind your fingers and try to keep the guests out of the kitchen. Go ahead, try.

food@latimes.com

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For Doc Rivers' Clippers, much rests on trust-building

"Trust" is a word Clippers Coach Doc Rivers uses a lot. It's something he thinks every team needs and his team still is trying to build.

Rivers wants his players to trust in each other. He wants his players to trust in the system. He wants his players to trust in the offense and the defense.

"When a team does get it on either end, you can see them play better," Rivers said. "They are free now. They don't have a lot of thought anymore. And that's what we're trying to get on both ends."

When Rivers started to talk about what he has learned about his team, he mentioned the word "defense."

Again, Rivers talked about trusting in the team's concepts.

"Defensively, this is what I've learned: We can be really good, but we're not at all yet," Rivers said. "I look at our personnel and our athleticism, and I think we could be a really good defensive team. But as the game [against the Lakers showed] we're such a long ways away…. And that's just a trust thing."

Rivers said playing hard on defense is one way to be a good defensive team but it takes more than that.

"If everybody played hard defensively individually, you would not be a good defensive team," Rivers said. "I think that's the biggest change in my thinking.… As much as you have to work on continuity on offense, you have to work that way on defense. Defense is continuity. It's talking, being in the right place."

Hungry to score

When a player gets into a zone where it seems as if he can't miss a shot, they call it "feed the pig," Rivers said. "Because when it's going, he's hungry."

"It's the same thing with a play," Rivers said.

Rivers said the Clippers ran a couple of plays with multiple options and scored out of it against the Lakers on Tuesday night.

But he said the Clippers didn't run that play again.

"To me, you feed it again, feed it again," Rivers said. "I think we're too smart sometimes. I'm pushing it, but that takes awhile. That's where that trust and all that stuff will hopefully come. Golden State is there because they've been together. We're not there yet, but we will be."

broderick.turner@latimes.com

Twitter: BA_Turner

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Tapes show mentally ill prisoners forced from cells with pepper spray

SACRAMENTO — Videotapes released Thursday by a federal court show mentally ill prisoners in California being forced from their cells by guards who douse them repeatedly with pepper spray.

Some of the inmates are being forced to comply with medication orders; others are to be moved to new cells.

The six tapes, created by guards abiding by a state policy to record all cell extractions, were shown in court in October as part of a lawsuit by inmates' lawyers seeking a ban on the use of pepper spray against the mentally ill. The tapes were ordered released by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, who is holding hearings on the issue in Sacramento.

In one tape shot in July of last year at California State Prison at Corcoran, a screaming, naked prisoner is sprayed five times in 15 minutes before being tackled to the ground by about half a dozen guards and then strapped to a gurney.

His prison psychiatrist testified that the psychotic inmate had lost touch with reality and needed emergency medication.

"When we order involuntary medications, the inmate is told they will receive medications whether they like it or not," said the psychiatrist, Dr. Ernest Wagner.

Lawyers representing some 30,000 mentally ill prisoners say the tapes show excessive force, the abuse of men who may have little understanding of what is happening to them or why.

"The mentally ill are being punished for their mental illness," Jeffrey Bornstein, a San Francisco attorney representing inmates, told the judge.

Witnesses for the state, including California's director of adult prisons, said in court that in all of the taped incidents guards followed proper procedure. It is safer to remove prisoners from their cell at a distance rather than use physical force, they said.

The corrections department filed the videos with the court Thursday and issued a statement calling the use of force "always a last resort for our staff."

Extracting inmates from their cells is typically done to keep them "from harming themselves or others and to ensure that they are placed in a more appropriate mental health setting," the statement said.

"What you don't see on these videos," it said, "is the hours of discussions that take place between the inmate and clinical staff before a cell extraction is ordered and the video camera starts rolling."

The agency said that it is in the process of revising rules to limit the amount of pepper spray used at any one time.

The 31-year-old inmate in the footage from Corcoran last July had been suicidal, Wagner testified — refusing to eat food, consuming his feces and hearing voices. Eventually the court ordered the man medicated, and he was brought out of his cell to have the drugs administered.

Without the medication, Wagner told the court, the prisoner "would have died."

After being removed from his cell, the inmate remained strapped down, under Wagner's orders.

He was released when a different doctor came on duty and then was moved to an isolation cell, according to medical files read in court. His prison sentence was extended by three months as punishment for refusing orders.

In November of last year, the inmate was admitted to a prison psychiatric hospital, where his condition improved, court documents show. He was then returned to the general prison population and paroled in February, according to courtroom testimony.

Karlton had ordered that the names of prisoners be removed or covered up in the videos, out of concern for their medical privacy. The state also obscured the names of all staff involved in the incidents.

Three of the six tapes were aired in court without editing. The others had only the names of inmates blocked or erased.

paige.stjohn@latimes.com

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USC at Oregon State sure to cause a commotion

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Pete Carroll did not want to acknowledge it. Nor did Lane Kiffin.

During their coaching tenures at USC, whenever they were asked why it was so difficult for the Trojans to defeat the Beavers on the road, they routinely praised Oregon State Coach Mike Riley.

But they usually avoided mention of another factor for fear of distracting their players.

Ed Orgeron, USC's interim coach, praised Riley this week — "When the Trojans get up there, he seems to always have his team ready," he said — but he also cited an environment at Reser Stadium that will make it tough once again when the Trojans play Oregon State on Friday night.

A top-ranked USC team escaped from the fog-shrouded stadium with a victory in 2004, but since then Trojans teams ranked No. 3, No. 1 and No. 20, respectively, were cut down by Riley, unintimidated Beavers players and some of the loudest, most engaged fans in the Pac-12 Conference.

"Pretty insane," USC offensive lineman John Martinez said, describing the noise the last time the Trojans visited Reser Stadium in 2010.

Thanks to Pac-12 scheduling, USC did not play Oregon State the previous two seasons, allowing the Trojans to skip a trip to Corvallis.

But here they are again, an unranked 5-3 team hoping to improve its bowl-game prospects and keep alive interim Orgeron's drive to become the full-time coach.

Riley, of course, has been mentioned as a candidate, though he has said he is not interested. USC wanted to hire Riley in 2000, but the former Trojans assistant could not get out of his contract with the San Diego Chargers. In 2010, he also declined overtures from USC.

This season, Riley and longtime offensive coordinator Danny Langsdorf are overseeing the top passing team in major-college football, which features quarterback Sean Mannion and receiver Brandin Cooks.

On Friday, the Beavers will debut orange uniforms and helmets before a crowd that has been called to create an "Orange Out."

During this week's Pac-12 coaches' teleconference, Riley said "the only real explanation" for the Beavers' success against USC at Reser Stadium was "we maximize our playing when we've played them in the past. That's what it's always taken, they've been so good."

Consider:

• In 2006, unbeaten, third-ranked USC fell behind, 33-10, early in the third quarter.

Co-offensive coordinators Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian abandoned the game plan and had quarterback John David Booty wing the ball all over the field. The Trojans came back and pulled to within 33-31 on Booty's touchdown pass to Steve Smith. But a two-point conversion pass to Dwayne Jarrett was batted away by an Oregon State lineman, and the Beavers recovered the ensuing onside kick.

"It was David and Goliath and we just kept saying, 'Chop off their head,'" Oregon State receiver Sammie Stroughter said after the Beavers ended USC's 27-game conference winning streak.

• In 2008, top-ranked USC was coming off a victory over Ohio State.

But unranked Oregon State, a 25-point underdog, got big performances from running back Jacquizz Rodgers and his brother James, a multitalented receiver, to upset the Trojans, 27-21.

USC trailed 21-0 at halftime before pulling to within 21-14 on touchdown passes by quarterback Mark Sanchez to Ronald Johnson and Damian Williams.

But Oregon State intercepted a pass and Jacquizz Rodgers scored a touchdown. Sanchez's late touchdown pass to Patrick Turner pulled the Trojans to within six points, but Oregon State recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.

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Sheriff's Dept. inquiries about inmate abuse found to be shoddy

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department failed to thoroughly investigate allegations from inmates who said they were physically abused by deputies, according to an analysis of 31 cases by the department's internal watchdog.

In a 145-page report, the Office of Independent Review said the department's shoddy initial investigations made it difficult to determine whether the inmates' allegations were valid. The watchdog launched its review of the handling of the cases after the American Civil Liberties Union in 2011 released sworn declarations from 78 inmates who alleged they were abused.

After the ACLU made the declarations public, Sheriff Lee Baca promised to reinvestigate the complaints. That review has led to three deputies being criminally charged: one on suspicion of assault and two others suspected of making false reports. Five deputies have been disciplined for violating policy in other cases. Some of the allegations remain under review.

The Office of Independent Review, which is headed by former federal prosecutor Michael Gennaco, said the department's effort to reevaluate the allegations was undermined by the inadequate investigations that occurred when the inmates initially complained to authorities. Most of their allegations were dismissed at the time.

The watchdog's report, which was released this week, comes as federal authorities continue to investigate alleged deputy abuse of inmates. Currently, criminal and civil rights investigations of the county jails are being conducted.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department will analyze the watchdog's report to see whether improvements can be made. But he defended the department's initial investigations into the allegations, saying they were thorough.

Peter Eliasberg, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California, said the watchdog's report highlighting problems with Sheriff's Department investigations was consistent with what his organization has been saying for years. He also questioned why the sheriff's watchdog hadn't identified problems with those investigations earlier.

"What does that say about the oversight of the OIR?" Eliasberg asked.

Gennaco said the allegations of abuse — with "mid-level injuries" — didn't rise to the level that his office typically reviewed. He said his office now does review such cases.

In other reforms, Gennaco said, the department has changed the way it handles use of force investigations in the lockups. A team of sergeants and lieutenants now oversees cases involving force and presents its findings to a commander's panel that convenes to discuss the case. Supervisors have also started receiving daily reports on incidents involving force to help monitor how force is used in the jails.

Another reform, the report said, has been the installation of 1,500 cameras in the downtown jails. Ninety percent of force used in those jails is now caught on camera, according to the report.

james.barragan@latimes.com

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