A fight at the Kane County Jail in St. Charles put the facility on lockdown for two days.
Four men – Omar Caballero, 20; Sergio B. Perez, 23; Martin Garcia Jr., 21; and Joshua C. Matias, 18 – were each charged as a result of the altercation. Perez, Garcia and Matias each face one count of mob action, while Caballero, the attack’s alleged target, was charged with possession of contraband in a penal institution after a sharpened piece of metal nearly five inches long fell out of his pants, according to court records and Kane County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Pat Gengler.
“It was a piece of metal that could have been used as a weapon,” Gengler said, adding it’s the “first time a real weapon” has been found at the jail since the current facility in St. Charles opened in 2008.
A corrections officer noticed nine inmates in one cell within the jail’s H Pod around 6:45 p.m. Aug. 20. While inmates are free to move around the pod, they aren’t supposed to be in one cell. The officer went to the cell to break things up and used pepper spray on the four men after they failed to comply with an order to leave.
“We believe it was probably gang-related,” Gengler said, noting that gang tensions on the streets often replicate inside the jail, although fights are infrequent.
Officials locked down the jail for two days to do a complete search of the facility that turned up nothing. The metal object was likely removed from a medical splint and modified, Gengler said. The four men refused medical treatment after the incident.
Unlike the old jail where corrections officers did not have a constant view of inmates, the current facility’s design makes it easy to spot trouble immediately, Gengler said.
“We were able to handle it right away,” he said, adding that the situation could have been worse without quick intervention.
Dan Campana is a freelance writer for The Beacon-News