A former Orange County sheriff’s deputy was acquitted on Tuesday, Feb. 16, of using excessive force when pouring hot water on the arm of a mentally ill inmate to get him to pull his hands back into his Orange County jail cell.

Guadalupe Ortiz was acquitted of a misdemeanor count of simple battery by an officer.

Ortiz was originally charged with two felonies but those were knocked down to misdemeanors with one eventually dismissed.

Ortiz injured the inmate on April 1, 2021. Attorney John Barnett argued that his client, who was honored by the department for his out-of-the-box strategies to gain compliance in the wing of the jail for inmates with mental-health issues, was engaged in legal force to get a man to comply.

Deputy District Attorney David McMurrin began his closing argument on Thursday, Feb. 13, with video of the confrontation.

“What you just saw was an assault by the defendant, by a public officer,” McMurrin said. “He pours hot water, causing first- and second-degree burns. He committed a crime when he was working that day.”

McMurrin acknowledged the inmate’s troubled history in the jail, but said those in that wing require more patience from deputies.

“They don’t behave like anybody else,” he said. “The deputies know that.”

The inmate had put his hands through a hatch in his cell and refused to pull them back in. He wasn’t posing a danger to anyone passing by or holding up jail functions, the prosecutor argued.

The inmate was “throwing a tantrum like a little child (but) not a threat,” McMurrin said

“Not a single witness said this was unreasonable or unnecessary,” said Barnett, the defense attorney.

Ortiz mixed hot and cold water and poured it on the inmate because he figured eventually the deputies would have to call in an extraction team, which would use a more aggressive form of force, the lawyer said.

“He doesn’t want him to go to the rubber room,” Barnett argued. “He’s looking after (the inmate) and no one disputed that.”

A deputy not regularly assigned to the jail module had escorted a nurse to treat cuts on a hand of the inmate through the hatch in his cell, McMurrin said. At some point the inmate exposed himself and said something along the lines of “treat this,” according to the prosecutor.

When told he would be written up, the inmate refused to pull his arms back to allow the hatch to close, McMurrin said. Multiple attempts to get the inmate to comply failed, so two deputies turned to Ortiz, who had 23 years on the job with eight in the module, Barnett said.

That day, the inmate had smeared his cell with feces, Barnett alleged.

Ortiz was named jail deputy of the year in 2016-17, Barnett added.

There was some urgency to get the inmate to pull his hands back into his cell because deputies were concerned he might grab a nurse or a deputy passing by, so none of the other inmates would get their medications, Barnett said.

Ortiz wasn’t aware the inmate was burned, Barnett said.

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