Posted on 09/30/2007 4:26:45 PM PDT by eyedigress
After months of trying to resolve a million-dollar lawsuit involving a severely broken arm allegedly injured at the Blount County Jail, Jamey Southerland made a decision to go public with his story Thursday.
His decision comes, he said, after a mediation that day with defendants from the county turned out to be a failure. Resolving the issue without going to trial does not seem to be a possibility now, he said Friday.
Southerland, 34, Morristown, filed a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Knoxville earlier this year, naming Blount County, Blount County Sheriff James Berrong, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office and unnamed jailers and supervisors as defendants.
The suit stems from an incident in October 2006 when Southerland was arrested by a Maryville police officer on a charge of DUI. He was taken to the Blount County Jail, where he alleges his arm was broken during an unprovoked altercation in the “pat-down” room.
Afterwards, he was held for hours and was not given medical attention for his injuries, Southerland said.
According to his suit, Southerland is seeking $500,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.
A break came in his case months after filing the initial complaint when Southerland found that the Maryville officer who initially arrested him had not turned off his in-car camera or microphone, allowing the moments leading up to the alleged abuse to be captured on tape. The pat-down room does not have a camera installed, Southerland said, but the Maryville officer’s vehicle was parked in such a way at the jail that it was able to record the incident. And because the officer had not turned off his microphone, most of the audio in the room was also recorded.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailytimes.com ...
This is a great story — without the stroke of luck of the police car video camera being on and having a view of the interrogation room, there would have been no proof, which suggests that there are thousands of other incidents like this that do not get resolved justly.
I would not only award the man his $500k plus $1M punitive damages, I would send the jailers who broke his arm to jail themselves, AND I would fire all the employees who had a duty to get the man medical attention and failed to.
This is newsworthy. The Blount County Jail has had the same folks in power for many years. They do not play on an equal field and are complete As%$#@!. I’ve had to deal with them and it is unbelievable.
Thanks for taking the time to understand. This has been going on forever. Technology took the idiots out. :^)
ping
He put his hands in his pockets.
That bastard! “SNAP”!
Watch the video. Do not support LEO’s who are corrupt.
Guy better be careful or they’ll break both his legs and give him some concrete shoes.
I have dealt with Blount County and they are as corrupt as acid rain. The whole system is crap. Start looking at the County Executive all the way to the Sheriff. It’s a good ole’ boy and it sucks.
Only the sound is on the video. Everybody knows that cops will not tolerate hands in pockets. Why would they?
They guy should have gotten medical attention. But he earned the broken arm.
BS. Read the report from the only paper in town! (and it’s LIBERAL) I guess you support “I’ll break bones if you don’t comply!” PHHHHHTTT.
In TN, the sheriff's department is at the bottom of the law enforcement pyramid. If you can't get on with the Highway Patrol, or a Police Department, you then go for Sheriff's deputy. They run the jails and police rural areas without a police department. They deliberately try to provoke people in custody to give them an excuse to administer a smackdown. It happens a lot. The reason they get away with it is too many people are willing to grant them that authority, thinking it will never happen to them or someone they love. Like you.
Unfortunately, the tax-payers will ultimately pay this bill. The worst that will happen to any uniformed “perps” is the loss of their jobs. They will move on to something else.
Who knows what happened. This audio tape proves nothing.
I’m not saying the cops are innocent; but, you are saying they are all guilty.
What planet are you on??
Actually, no. There have been a number of successful prosecutions of LEO's in TN for violating the civil rights of those who have been arrested or are already incarcerated. Usually its on the county level (Sheriff's deputies). Generally city police and State troopers act professionally; they will treat you as well as you let them.
This is your assignment: Watch a few episodes of “Cops”.
I think we would generally be much better off with fewer LEO's, fewer laws and more armed citizens. We didn't have any police departments at all in the modern sense until after 1900.
Yeah, and women couldn’t live alone then either.
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