Sheriff’s department higher-ups late last week and early this week were attempting to ascertain whether an outbreak of violence within one of the female inmate housing units at West Valley Detention Center on November 13 was an isolated spontaneous occurrence or whether it was part of a planned and concerted attack on jailers that presages a general uprising of prisoners chaffing under harsh conditions.
What appears to be certain is that a female deputy sheriff sustained injuries serious enough to require hospitalization after what was a planned and coordinated attack involving deception by at least two female inmates.
According to the Sheriff’s Department, the deputy was violently attacked by two inmates on November 13 after she was induced to break strict security protocol and let her guard down in response to what seemed to be a medical emergency. In addition to the participation of two identified inmates, department investigators believe a third and perhaps a fourth rendered assistance in the assault.
At approximately 6:12 p.m. on Wednesday, November 13, while making routine rounds within the housing unit for female inmates, a deputy saw an inmate, Rose Marie Villalobos, 32, hovering over another inmate, 24-year-old Kyanna Renee Patterson, who was prone on the housing unit floor. Villalobos was feigning rendering assistance to Patterson, whose twitching and body contortions simulated an epileptic seizure.
As the deputy positioned herself to render Patterson assistance, Villalobos threw a cup of vomit into the deputy’s face, punched her and slashed her face with a razor. Villalobos took the deputy’s radio and used it to strike the deputy repeatedly in the head.
Patterson also used a cup to physically assault the deputy, according to the department.
Sheriff’s department custody personnel monitoring video images streamed into a secure area located elsewhere in the West Valley Detention Center spotted signs that the attack was underway within 30 seconds of its onset, and several deputies flooded into the housing unit and restrained Patterson and Villalobos, bringing to a close the assault upon the deputy.
It appeared that at least one other inmate was acting as a watch-out to alert Villalobos and Patterson if any additional sheriff’s department personnel were approaching.
The deputy who had been attacked was immediately transferred to a local hospital for treatment. She has been released, but at press time had not yet returned to work.
The department has initiated an investigation of the incident and its context, utilizing internal and external investigators, that is, ones already assigned to the West Valley Detention Center as well as detectives operating out of the sheriff’s department headquarters who are assigned to the sheriff’s command echelon or the department’s intelligence unit.
Investigators have already made some headway, determining to a considerable degree what occurred.
Both Villalobos and Patterson have a history of violence. Villalobos has a history of violence while in custody.
Rose Marie Villalobos was serving time for an incident that occurred on April 3 of this year, which was originally charged as felony assault with a non-firearm deadly weapon in a way that was likely to cause great bodily injury on April 5. That charge was reduced to a misdemeanor in a plea arrangement entered before Judge Richard Peel on July 22. Villalobos, who has used the alias Rosemary Hernandez, had previously been arrested for battery that occurred on August 26, 2016. She was charged with a misdemeanor on that offense, which was then dismissed subject to a conditional plea arrangement. That dismissal was rescinded and the charge revived, however, after her arrest and conviction for the April 3, 2019 assault with a deadly weapon. In 2009, she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon while in custody, a felony. On July 2, 2007, she was charged with attempted murder, infliction of great bodily injury and assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm stemming from an incident on June 28 of that year. The attempted murder and great bodily injury charges were dismissed in return for her plea to assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm in a manner likely to result in great bodily injury.
Patterson is in custody on a series of yet outstanding cases. One is based upon an incident that occurred in August 2018, in which she was charged with battery against a police officer. She pleaded not guilty to that charge before Judge Ingrid Uhler on August 16, 2018. That case remains active. She has another misdemeanor battery case stemming from an incident on September 29, 2018 pending against her. Additionally, based on her action on August 21, 2018, she is charged with attempted murder, kidnapping, evading a police officer with wanton disregard for the safety of others and hit and run driving resulting in injury or death, all of which are felonies and are yet pending.
Investigators believe that Villalobos and Patterson had the assistance of others, one of whom was inmate Amber Rae Tena. Tena, who also goes by the aliases Amber Word and Amber Rodriguez, was in custody on misdemeanor petty theft and assault charges when she was charged with assault by a prisoner and then both manufacturing a weapon while in custody and being in possession of that weapon. Tena participated in the November 13 assault by keeping watch and alerting Villalobos and Patterson when the deputy was approaching, investigators believe.
The investigation will touch on a number of issues, including the prisoners’ access to items in the jail’s commissary as well as cosmetics. Female prisoners in California are sometimes provided access to cosmetics, including makeup and eyeliner, because it is believed to reduce the incidence of violence in custody situations.
The investigation’s data and report are to be forwarded to the sheriff’s command as well as to the district attorney’s office for review and a determination on whether charges are to be filed against Villalobos, Patterson and potentially Tena and others.