Man Accused In Children's Near-Drowning Severely Beaten In Jail

POSTED: 7:27 am MST December 14, 2006

CANON CITY, Colo. -- A Canon City man accused in the near-drowning of
three toddlers over the summer was hospitalized with a fractured skull and
other injuries Wednesday after being beaten in the Fremont County Jail --
allegedly by a white supremacist.

Sheriff's officials said Richard Steven Valdez, 35, also suffered broken
eye sockets and nasal injuries in the beating that occurred Tuesday.

He had been scheduled to attend a court hearing Wednesday, but was
hospitalized instead.

Jack Swearingen, 28, is a reported member of the so-called "Two-Eleven"
crew, a Colorado prison gang of white supremacists.

Swearingen and two other Department of Corrections inmates are suspected
of attacking Valdez, police said.

Valdez was arrested after three children nearly drowned in a backyard
swimming pool in May as he took a shower with the mother of one of the
children. Nina Davis, 23, said she left the children in the living room of
the house the couple shared.