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Articles in Verdict1

$115,000 Settlement after Nebraska Prison Nurses Ignore Prisoner Suffering Heart Attack

by Ed Lyon

In mid-August 2015, diabetic Nebraska prisoner Aron Lee Boyd­-Nicholson was washing clothes in his cell when he began experiencing classic heart attack symptoms – including chest pain, dizziness and weakness – before he collapsed. Nurse Carolyn Moore tested his blood-sugar levels, then instructed him to return ...

Jailed North Carolina Teenager Commits Suicide; $650,000 Wrongful Death Settlement

by Ed Lyon

After a troubled and tormented life, capped by a year of being assaulted and bullied in a Durham, North Carolina adult jail, 17-year-old Uniece Fennell hanged herself in her cell. 

Uniece was raised in California. Her father, an abusive drug addict, had recently been released from ...

Denver, Colorado Pays $30,000 Settlement Over a $50 Bond Fee

by Ed Lyon 

Denver, Colorado resident Mickey Howard, often homeless and unemployed, was arrested on June 9, 2018 and charged with public intoxication and domestic violence. He had $64 when he was booked into jail.

The next morning at his arraignment, a judge set Howard’s bond at $10 – ...

$1.6 Million Awarded to California Family After Man Dies in County Jail

by Chad Marks

On February 15, 2019, a federal jury ruled that Mark Pajas, Sr. should not have died at a jail in Monterey County, California, prompting an award of $1.6 million to his family in a wrongful death suit.

Pajas, 56, was riding a bicycle the wrong way ...

Cook County to Pay Over $5 Million for Depriving Prisoners of Dental Care

by Douglas Ankney

In May 2018, commissioners in Cook County, Illinois agreed to establish a $5,263,000 fund to settle four lawsuits, including one certified as a class-action, alleging a complete denial of dental treatment for prisoners at the Cook County Jail (CCJ). The claims arose because, in a 2007 “cost-cutting ...

New Jersey County Pays $1,975,000 to Settle Suit Over Unlawful Strip Searches

by Douglas Ankney

Ocean County, New Jersey has agreed to pay $1.975 million to settle a class-action lawsuit, where the class was defined as “All persons who were admitted into the Ocean County Correctional Facility during the period between November 28, 2005 through December 28, 2007, after being arrested only ...

Georgia Prisoner Left in Vegetative State; Lawsuit Settles for $1,500,000

by Ed Lyon

In March 2014, Mollianne Fischer’s term of probation for misusing a credit card was revoked and she began serving a two-year sentence at Arrendale State Prison. She appeared to be in good health at first, though later began vomiting and had trouble breathing and remaining continent. She ...

Prisoner Enters Federal System Able to See, Leaves Nearly Blind; $2.6 Million Settlement

by Ed Lyon 

Vannara Nhar, 22, was sentenced to a term in federal prison for selling firearms to an undercover cop. He entered the Bureau of Prisons in October 2011 with near-perfect vision and was assigned to FCC Butner in North Carolina. When he left in 2013, his eyesight ...

California: Placer County to Pay up to $1.44 Million to Settle Class Action Suit for Jail Beatings

by Douglas Ankney

In March 2019, Placer County, California agreed to create a fund of $1,449,700 to settle potential claims arising from a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of prisoners who were beaten by guards at the county’s two jails. Placer County had previously settled six suits and a claim ...

Ohio County Pays $115,000 to Settle Second Suit Over Restraint Chair Pepper-Spraying

by Matt Clarke

On January 8, 2019, Montgomery County, Ohio agreed to pay $115,000 to resolve a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by a former jail prisoner who was pepper-sprayed while “largely strapped into” a seven-point restraint chair.

Charles Wade was being booked into the Montgomery County Jail on October ...