Pubdate: Thu, 4 Nov 1999 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Orange County Register Contact: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: Kiley Russell, The Associated Press PROSECUTOR IN PRISON RAPE CASE SAYS NOBODY IS ABOVE THE LAW COURTS: The defense team is expected to wrap up its summation by this afternoon. HANFORD - Four guards at one of the state's toughest prisons left an inmate in a cell with a known sexual predator to "teach him how to do his time," a prosecutor said in closing arguments Wednesday. The Corcoran State Prison guards allegedly set up rapes of Eddie Dillard over three days in March 1993 to punish him for kicking a female guard at another prison. "When this case began I used the phrase 'no one is above the law.' Now I have to ask, 'Or are they?'" said Deputy Attorney General Vern Pierson. "Is someone above the law because they carry a badge?" The prosecution finished its closing arguments Wednesday and the defense team is expected to wrap up its summation by this afternoon. Sgts. Robert Decker, 41, and Dale Brakebill, 34, and officers Anthony Sylva, 36, and Joe Sanchez, 38, all are charged with aiding and abetting sodomy in concert and face up to nine years in prison if convicted. Pierson said the defendants knew what would happen if they put Dillard, in prison for assault with a deadly weapon, in the cell with Wayne Robertson, who at 220 pounds was almost twice his size. Robertson is doing life without the possibility of parole for a 1979 murder conviction. Documents listing Robertson as a "cellee raper" and designating him and Dillard as enemies show that the guards knew Robertson's reputation and that the two inmates should never have been put in the same cell, Pierson said. Robertson admitted to rapping Dillard. He also testified that guards knew his reputation and that he was sometimes used by them to punish unruly inmates. The four defendants to Dillard if the two of them were left alone together, Robertson testified. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D