The trial for a Lemon Creek Correctional Center inmate accused of participating in a jail riot that caused thousands of dollars in damages got underway in Juneau Superior Court on Tuesday.
Justin F. Thomerson is one of eight inmates accused of felony rioting and criminal mischief in connection with the incident on Oct. 5, 2015 at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. Four of those men have taken plea agreements, while Christopher Davison, Dalton Nierstheimer and Jordan Oldham are set to go to trial at a later date.
The riot ostensibly was sparked by changes to the phone system used by inmates that caused a jump in billing rates.
But Assistant District Attorney Amy Paige told the jury during opening statements that Thomerson’s actions were not caused by frustration with the phone system.
According to Paige, Thomerson never even bothered to contact supervisors about his concerns; Paige added that the jail staff was doing its best to resolve issues even though the phone system was instituted statewide.
In a recorded phone call to his girlfriend, Thomerson threatened to assault law enforcement officers, in graphic and obscenity-laden language, Paige said, relating his words to the jury.
“Justin Thomerson wanted to kick their faces in,” she said. “He didn’t care about the phones. He cared about the violence.”
Just one hour after that jailhouse phone call, Paige said, Thomerson and his fellow inmates started a riot in E dorm, covering cameras, breaking a window and ripping up a metal table bolted to the floor.
“He engaged in conduct that created a hazardous situation for correctional officers and other inmates, and that caused more than $6,000 in damage,” she said.
Paige noted for the jury that in the surveillance videos, Thomerson could be identified by his running shoes, and she noted that many of the inmates in the dorm changed into running shoes in preparation for the riot.
But Thomerson’s defense attorney, Gregory Parvin, told the jurors to take a careful look at the evidence.
“My client never made any threats,” Parvin said, characterizing the conversation with his girlfriend as describing his “incredible frustration with the jail.”
The new phone system, which had been installed in September, was causing incredible friction within the jail, Parvin acknowledged.
But, he added, the jurors need to differentiate between the action of other inmates and those of Thomerson.
“You will see what happened, and more important, what my client did and did not do,” Parvin said.
The majority of the first day of trial was devoted to surveillance video from within the dorm and outside in the hallway of events leading up to, and the beginning stages of, the incident.
Davison, one of the charged inmates, had come out of the dorm when he was not supposed to, and refused order to return, Correctional Officer Richard Nelson testified.
Thomerson also came out and “was yelling about the price of phone calls,” Nelson said.
Several other dorm mates crowded to the entry to watch what was going on, but they all went back in after Nelson called for backup.
Now-retired Sgt. Cathy Good, who was the shift supervisor that night, testified that their behavior was unusual, calling it a “red flag.”
Good said that she began watching the surveillance video feed.
Several hours of the video were played for the jury while Good narrated and identified inmates.
During the section of the video that showed the conversation around the table, Good told the jury, “It didn’t look like a casual conversation to me. … This was not a group I would expect to see hanging out.”
Typically during that time of night, she said, some inmates would be watching TV, some would be on the phones and there might be a card game going on at a back table.
The team of correctional officers that was scheduled to perform the inmate count told her they did not feel it was safe to enter the dorm and the SORT team (Special Operations Response Team) was called, Good said.
Instead, over the period of about an hour after that conversation, inmates could be seen on the video filling bottles of water — to make the floor slippery, Good said — trying to jam the door’s security flap open with paper, and wetting down towels, possibly to protect themselves from pepper spray.
The video of the inside of the dorm ends after inmates cover the cameras with wet paper.
Some of the video footage from outside the dorm was also reviewed, with Thomerson reportedly one of the men seen moving a table to block the sliding door.
Thomerson’s trial will resume this morning and is expected to last at least through Thursday.
• Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 523-2246 or liz.kellar@juneauempire.com.
