Posted on 12/20/2006 12:42:59 PM PST by SmithL
LOS ANGELES - A former inmate who was severely beaten after other inmates learned he was an accused child molester was awarded $2.8 million to settle a lawsuit he filed against Los Angeles County.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to resolve the suit by Jose Beas, 41. The award was the most the county has paid to settle a lawsuit involving a jail attack.
Beas sustained brain injury and spent months in a semi-vegetative state after the Dec. 13, 2003, incident. He remains bedridden, unable to walk or talk.
Attorneys for Beas contended that sheriff's employees endangered Beas by placing him in a dormitory with 80 general population inmates instead of isolating him as department policy required.
In the suit, Beas said the department failed to segregate him even after one jail employee requested he be moved to protective custody.
Sheriff's deputies, alerted by another inmate, found Beas unconscious in a pool of blood on the floor of his dormitory. Authorities said no jail officials witnessed the assault.
No deputies were disciplined in the matter because a one-year deadline to impose discipline had lapsed when sheriff's officials learned of the alleged mistakes.
Beas was arrested in December 2003 and charged with molesting a 5-year-old girl his wife was baby-sitting. He denied he molested the girl, saying he playfully patted her bottom with an open hand. The charges were later dropped because of the seriousness of Beas' injuries, according to court records.
The next best thing to actually being innocent.
Bob reporting for his 2.8 million dollar beating, do your damndest.
Is this historically precidented?
You'd be well advised to NEVER show any physical affection to any child ever lest you be similarly accused. Calling for the death penalty for a man who simply patted a child on the bottom is idiotic.
Wonder why he was in jail? If this is an innocent man, he deserves the money.
HAVING SAID THAT..Child molesters should not get special treatment in jail, special rooms, whatever. I am glad to see the criminal population is still administering justice to child molesters that the PC judges will not.
I am aways amazed at the number of FReepers who jump to conclusions and want someone hanged for an alleged offense.
The former inmate description made me think this was his second offense. Sheesh, never thought there would be so many people coming to the defense of an accused child molester. The charges have been dropped and he's now 2.8 million richer. There, I'm sure justice was served.
They want to have their cake and eat it too.
The moral of this story is don't molest children. The sup's were wrong on this one.
If more child molesters just mysteriously turned up dead before sentencing this wouldn't be such a problem.
Because prisoners beat up a known child molester (maybe not in this case), does not mean I cheer for "mob rule".
Prison is not MEANT to be a resort. If someone ruins the life of a child, a few beatings in prison is nothing compared to the death sentence he/she should receive if not for PC judges!
It should be noted that this was an *accused* molester
not a *convicted* one.
You who support ad hoc "justice" had never ever be numbered
among the accused lest you also be so treated..
dormitory? maybe this was all a college prank, a bit of hazing?
Hey, California! It's a good thing you have a state income tax. You can just ratchet it right up there to cover this.
$2.8M is a lot of money- it is more money than I will pay as taxes for my entire life. Jail is not a safe place. Assaults and rape happens every day. That doesn't make it all right. But there seems little legal precedent for this judgment.
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