U. S. District Court Judge Richard E. Dorr signed an order today allowing former Newton County Jail inmate Oscar Alvarez to file an amended petition in his lawsuit against Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland.
Alvarez' initial petition claimed former jailers Adam Babbitt and Shane Smith opened his cell door, allowing other prisoners to enter his cell and beat him. Former Sheriff Ron Doerge was listed as a defendant in the original petition, but was removed from the lawsuit by the judge and replaced by Copeland.
In the amended petition, filed last month in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Alvarez claims that Babbitt or Smith did the following:
-"Unlocked Alvarez' cell door
-"Turned off the video surveillance camera monitoring Alvarez' cell, or arranged for it to be turned off
-"Unlocked the cell doors of two other prisoners or arranged for their cell doors to be unlocked
-"Allowed one of the inmates to stand watch while another inmate entered Alvarez' cell and attacked Alvarez causing him serious bodily injury.
The new petition says that Doerge "either instructed the jailers under his control to use disciplinary measures designed to violated, or having the effect of violating, inmates' constitutional rights."
Those disciplinary measures, according to the lawsuit, were: "taking beds and blankets away from inmates, taking away shower privileges, locking inmates in solitary confinement for up to 30 days at a time, locking inmates in solitary confinement with other inmates for the purpose of inciting or encouraging those inmates to fight with one another, denying water to inmates for up to 10 hours at a time, and inappropriately using tasers for the purpose of disciplining inmates."
Because of these policies, the petition said, Alvarez received facial injuries and suffers from "headaches, back injuries and brain damage."Alvarez continues to suffer from emotional distress, the petition said, because he feared for his life following the alleged attack in his cell.
The beating violated his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment, according to the petition. The petition asks for unspecified monetary damages. The new petition came on the next to last day before the court deadline for changing the petition.
Under the schedule filed March 16 in federal court, the trial is set for Feb. 21, 2006, with a pretrial hearing planned for Feb. 10 in Springfield.
The officers in question never used a tazor gun the entire time they were employeed by newton county. On line officers cannot put an inmate in solitary only supervisors can. On line officers cannot remove a privlige from an inmate with instructions from a supervisor. Only supervisors can change cell placement. The officers in question never had a conversation with Doerge or ever recevied a direct order from him, only their supervisor. So why are the jailers supervisors not named?
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