INMATE CLAIMS TORTURE, ASSAULT

October 24, 1986 Edition: SUN-SENTINEL Section: LOCAL Page: 11A INMATE CLAIMS TORTURE, ASSAULT Author: The Associated Press Article Text: TITUSVILLE –An inmate who says guards locked him in a death-watch cell at Florida State Prison and said he would be executed is suing 12 state Department of Corrections officials. Michael A. Barfield, convicted of escape and forgery, was serving 12 years at another institution when he was transferred to the state prison near Starke, according to a suit he filed Wednesday in Brevard Circuit Court. Florida`s electric chair is at the prison. Barfield claims he cooperated with a federal investigation for five months in 1983 while he was an inmate at Baker Correctional Institution. When the investigation was over, the agents ordered Barfield moved to the state prison, the suit claims. Barfield, who was sentenced as a youthful offender, was illegally detained in a death-watch cell at the prison and “deemed himself kidnapped,” the suit says. DOC officials allowed another inmate to enter Barfield`s cell and sexually attack him, the suit says. They also “psychologically torture(d) (him) into believing he was another inmate scheduled for electrocution,” the suit said. The suit charges the 12 DOC officials with violating the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, and asks each defendant for $10,000 actual damages and more than $10,000 punitive damages. Copyright 1986 News & Sun-Sentinel