Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Alvarez lawsuit settled

The lawsuit brought by former Newton County jail inmate Oscar Alvarez against former Sheriff Ron Doerge has been settled, according to a filing Monday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
The attorneys stipulated that "the above-captioned case has been settled in its entirety and, therefore, request the court to enter its order dismissing the action, with prejudice, with all parties to bear their own respective costs," the document said. A dismissal with prejudice means the case cannot be filed again.
No details were given as to what settlement was reached.
In his lawsuit, Alvarez alleged that two jailers, Adam Brandon Babbitt and Shane Steven Smith unlocked Alvarez' jail door, turned off video surveillance cameras, unlocked the cell doors of two prisoners and then allowed them to go into Alvarez' cell and attack him.
As has been noted in The Turner Report, Doerge may have ignored evidence that his jailers had nothing whatsoever to do with the attack.
A federal court judge had dismissed Doerge as a defendant, saying that since he is no longer sheriff and the action was brought against the sheriff that the defendant should be current Sheriff Kenneth Copeland.

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