Rapist of 11-year-old girl beaten by guards in prison

Once again, Jose Carrasquillo was on the receiving end of a beating.

Carrasquillo, who was charged last June with raping an 11-year-old girl in Kensington, apparently was pummeled by corrections officers after a confrontation Sunday at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, officials said.

While some details of the brouhaha remain unclear, this much is known: Carrasquillo is in critical condition at Aria Health's Torresdale campus with various injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said yesterday.

One news report suggested that he was in a coma. The spokeswoman said that she couldn't confirm that.

Lorenzo North, president of the Prison Guards Union Local 159, said that Carrasquillo attacked a sergeant and four corrections officer with a sock that was stuffed with a bar of soap.

"That's a jailhouse weapon," North said. "They did what they had to do to protect themselves and subdue the inmate."

Prison spokesman Bob Eskind said that some sort of sock weapon had been found in Carrasquillo's cell but that he couldn't confirm whether Carrasquillo had attacked the guards.

Eskind said that the confrontation began about 7:45 p.m. Sunday, when the guards asked the 27-year-old inmate to leave his cell.

What happened next is under investigation, he noted.

North said that in addition to the stuffed sock, guards found two sharpened pens in Carrasquillo's cell that could have been used as weapons.

"All I know is that he wasn't in no coma when he left the prison," North added.

Carrasquillo was chased down and beaten by an angry mob in Kensington on June 2, after police identified him as a person of interest in the rape of a schoolgirl in the neighborhood the day before.

DNA evidence later positively matched him to the crime.

Eskind said that Carrasquillo was in solitary confinement because of the high-profile nature of his case.