Alleged child rapist beaten behind bars

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, was apparently pummeled by corrections officers after a confrontation Sunday at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, officials said.

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

One news report suggested he was in a coma; the spokeswoman said she couldn’t confirm that detail.

Lorenzo North, the president of the Prison Guards Union Local 159, said 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 acknowledged that some sort of sock weapon was found in Carrasquillo’s cell, but couldn’t confirm if the accused child rapist had attacked the guards.

Eskind said 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 beaten down by an angry mob in Kensington on June 2, after police identified him as a “person of interest” in the rape of a schoolgirl that had taken place the day before. DNA evidence later positively linked him to the crime.

Eskind said Carrasquillo is currently in solitary confinement because of the high-profile nature of his case