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.
Brain damage, months in a semi-vegetative state, bedridden, unable to walk or talk.
Do you wanna rethink what's worth $2.8 million? Sounds like most of that will be spent on nursing care for the rest of his life.
Natch.
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.
It took them over a year to learn of the "alleged" mistakes?
I would like to be on the jury that awards all of this scumbag's found money to the parents as trustee for the molested girl.
Doesn't matter, the $2.8 million is going to go back into the state healthcare system, after the lawyers get their cut, of course.
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