As a man who has spent about 20 of his 47 years in jail or prison, Inmate Number Three has gone through more than his share of pat-down searches. But the pat-down he received from Correctional Officer Cory Jordan Fisher Sr. was memorable.

In the summer of 2017, Number Three was lodged in Humboldt County Correctional Facility and Fisher was escorting him from his cell to a recreation area. He stood spread-eagled outside the recreation room door while Fisher patted him down.

“When he did the pat-down on me he grabbed my penis,” Number Three said under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Stacey Eads. “He yanked it … it was a bit like milking a goat or a cow.”

Fisher.

Fisher, 31, is on trial for the alleged sexual assault of three minor boys and three jail inmates. All three boys have testified, and today inmate testimony began with Number Three. He is one of several inmates who were returned from state prison for the Fisher trial. Today he was dressed in slacks, a dress shirt and tie.

In addition to the penis-tugging incident, Fisher allegedly had other habits that caused Number Three discomfort. To begin with, he said, Fisher did pat-downs by “bear-hugging” inmates from behind, with his body pressed hard against theirs. Number Three said no other officer performed bear-hugs.

Number Three learned to sleep with his face to the wall when Fisher was working, because he would enter the cell and stand right next to his head.

“I would wake up to a crotch in my face,” he recalled. Other officers, he said, would peek into the cell and he would just show them his inmate wristband.

Fisher also had the peculiar habit, Number Three said, of making a big deal out of the hot dogs inmates were served once a week.

“Time to suck the weenie,” he quoted Fisher as saying as other officers “laughed along with him.”

“He never commented on other meals,” Inmate Three said.

Eads asked whether he had reported the penis-yanking right away, and he said no.

“I kind of just wrote it off because that type of thing has happened to me before in prison, and in my experience it was never taken seriously.”

But then Inmate Three started seeing news reports about people coming forward to report this type of abuse, and he decided to request an interview and report the assault. He said he wasn’t after money and had received no promises or benefits for testifying.

“I just wanted to look (Fisher) in the eye in court and let him know you can’t always get away with that kind of thing,” he said as Fisher stared at him. “People need to be held accountable.”

Inmate Three is a stark contrast to the alleged child victims who testified, one of them just 12 years old. Inmate Three’s rap sheet goes back to 1991, when he was 20. In that year alone he was convicted of resisting an executive officer, misdemeanor burglary and misdemeanor child molestation. He went on to be found guilty of indecent exposure, felony petty theft with a prior conviction and more resisting of officers. And the list went on.

Inmate Three is a registered sex offender and admitted he has failed to register more than once.

When Eads asked how he felt about having his criminal history brought out in court, he said “Nervous.”

Under cross-examination by Deputy Conflict Counsel David Lee, Inmate Three said there were no observation posts in the area where Fisher allegedly tugged on his penis. He said there might have been one video surveillance camera but it was broken.

As to how Inmate Three reported the assault, Lee asked whether it was true that he “started yelling at breakfast that you’d been sexually assaulted by an officer and nobody would listen to you.”

“I don’t recall that,” he said.

Two other inmates are alleged victims of Fisher’s. One of them has previously claimed Fisher held a Taser to his head and forced him to perform oral sex.

The inmates are being referred to in court as “James Doe,” while the children were designated “John Doe.”

Testimony was expected to continue this afternoon before Judge Timothy Canning.

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