Inmates Attack Jailers at S.F. Hall of Justice
Murderer awaiting sentence allegedly tried to incite riot

Thursday, July 27, 2000

San Francisco -- A San Francisco inmate facing life without parole for a 1995 stomping murder tried to incite a jail riot and attacked a jailer yesterday while another inmate hurled disinfectant into the faces of three other deputies, authorities said.

Joseph Keel, 24, who is to be sentenced next month for the murder of a Glen Park man, refused a deputy's order to take a blanket off a table and put it on his bed at County Jail No. 2 at the Hall of Justice, authorities said. The order came as the jailhouse's weekly cleaning was under way around 10:30 a.m.

``Mr. Keel began inciting other prisoners not to cooperate with the cleaning of the tank (housing area),'' said Eileen Hirst, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Department.

At that point, Ahmad Sloan, 40, who is awaiting trial on federal drugs and weapons charges, threw disinfectant at three deputies and Keel punched a fourth deputy above the eye, Hirst said. No other inmates took part in the incident, Hirst said.

The four deputies were taken to San Francisco General Hospital for treatment and were released.

Both Keel and Sloan were ordered removed from the inmate population after the incident.

In June, a jury found Keel guilty of first-degree murder and second- degree robbery in the death of 37- year-old Gary Patock, whose body was found by a teacher near the grounds of St. John's Elementary School the morning of Oct. 27, 1995.

Assistant District Attorney Al Giannini called the crime ``gratuitously vicious and violent.'' Keel testified that he had tried to stop the attack, then fled after his companion did the stomping.