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Pasco Deputy Injured In Brawl At Jail

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By GEOFF FOX | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - A deputy at the Land O' Lakes jail was injured early this morning when he tried to break up a fight between two inmates in the maximum-security wing.

Raymond Williamson, 23, who has worked at the jail just more than a year, suffered a separated shoulder and unspecified head injuries when he tried to stop a brawl between Phillup Alan Partin, who is accused of killing a teen, and Rogelio Perez, who was arrested in May and charged with attempted murder.

Partin and Perez were cellmates and one of them was being transferred to a different cell when the fight erupted around 2:45 a.m., sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said.

"Perez had a writing pen, and he tried to stab or fight Partin," Doll said. "Ray Williamson tried to physically break up the fight, used pepper spray and called for back-up."

Besides the separated shoulder, Williamson also was stabbed in the head with the pen. He was treated and released from Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point. He had not been interviewed by investigators today because he was "under medication," Doll said.

Partin, 42, is accused of the 2002 strangling of Joshan Ashbrook, 16, whose body was found in woods off Shady Hills Road. Last month, Partin's first-degree murder trial ended in a mistrial after untested blood evidence surfaced after four days of prosecution testimony. A second trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 7.

Perez, who has a long history of drug- and violence-related arrests, was arrested by Pasco deputies in May and charged with attempted murder, sheriff's records said.

On May 17, Perez is accused of striking his brother for no apparent reason before slashing Edward Hamilton, 38, with a machete, records said.

Hamilton, a construction worker, was laying tile at a house next to Perez's Crystal Springs home, when Perez began slashing him, records said. Hamilton suffered a 6-inch cut on his arm and was treated and released from Florida Hospital Zephyrhills.

In September, Perez was charged with aggravated battery during another jailhouse brawl, sheriff's records said. In that case, Perez is accused of punching an inmate who was changing the channel on a television in the jail's "day room."

The other inmate, Shedrick Russell, 27, had been told to change the channel by a detention deputy, records said.

Doll said the jail is about 30 percent over-capacity and that officials are "constantly moving inmates to make life in jail as easy as possible." There was no apparent history of problems between Perez and Partin.

Both inmates suffered facial lacerations, and both were treated and released from local hospitals.

"We don't know what started this fight," Doll said. "This just underlines the dangers that being a detention deputy entails."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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