Since you are female, and a former police officer, I'd welcome your comments...There is an assumption, correct, or not, as in this case., that the entire court complex isisolated, and while a prisoner might cause harm, there is hardly a chance of escape. Also, as a rule, prisoners are far more likely to be beter behaved during trial, before the verdict is rendered. There's always trhe chance they might get off, right? And some say that female guards may exert a calming influence on some prisoners.. I'd say that the gurad in qiestion has probably handled , over her long career. many thousands of prisoners in exactly the same manner, all without any major incident whatsover..And complacency can be deadly..
I don't know all of the details of this incident, or whether the deputy was complacent or not. I also really do not understand at all how Nichols was able to flee the courthouse---that part gets me the most.
Clearly, they need to examine their procedures for handling combative or possibly combative suspects. One deputy is not sufficient, even if that deputy was built like Arnold Schwarzenegger.