New deputy resigns, says he was told to beat up inmate

Another turn in the stories of alleged abuse by sheriff's deputies assigned to the Los Angeles County jails. According to the L.A. Times, a rookie who graduated at the top of his recruit class resigned after only a few weeks on the job, alleging that a supervisor made him beat up a mentally ill jail inmate.

The deputy, Joshua Sather, said that shortly before the inmate's beating his supervisor said, "We're gonna go in and teach this guy a lesson," according to the records. The attack, Sather said, was then covered up.

Law enforcement records reveal that the incident caused tensions in the Sheriff's Department. Sather's uncle, a veteran sheriff's detective, angrily confronted the supervisor about making his nephew "beat up 'dings,' " slang for the mentally disabled. He then allegedly threatened to "put a bullet" in the supervisor's head.

This was last year. Sather now low lives in Colorado, where he works in oil fields, and he declined to talk to the Times.