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| Jail death settlement: $1.45M |
| By Mobile Register |
| Published: 09/18/2003 |
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Two teenage daughters of James Carpenter, a mentally ill inmate who died from a flesh-eating bacteria in the Mobile, Ala. County jail three years ago, will receive about $350,000 each in a partial settlement of a lawsuit over their father's death. Carpenter's death revealed serious problems at the jail. Though jail officials have said they've improved things, the fallout is ongoing. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating jail conditions and has named several topics that were at issue during Carpenter's incarceration. The total payout is $1.45 million -- the maximum under the insurance policies that cover the county, Sheriff Jack Tillman and jail employees, according to lawyers who presented the plan to a federal judge on Wednesday. The county is insured for $1 million, if it pays $100,000 of the claim. An insurer for an unnamed jail employee paid $350,000. Lawyers refused to say who the individual is. Only three jail employees had their own representation. The other half of the $1.45 million is proposed to be paid to the plaintiffs' lawyers: Griffin Sikes Jr. and Frank Hawthorne Jr. and Robert F. Clark of Mobile. Clark said Mobile lawyer Dom Soto will get a cut as well. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Butler Jr. said the overall settlement amount was fine with him, but he wanted to consider the attorneys' fees further before approving them. Carpenter was arrested in July 2000 on misdemeanor charges for panhandling outside a fast-food restaurant. Sikes described Carpenter as an itinerant preacher and a decent father who remembered the birthdays of his daughters, now 14 and 17. Sikes also acknowledged that Carpenter had fallen on hard times and had mental problems, having been diagnosed as psychotic the day before his final arrest. Some of the details of Carpenter's 15-day incarceration, according to Sheriff's Department reports and court filings: He spent most of that time in solitary confinement, naked and shackled on his ankles and wrists. Wounds caused by those restraints, according to his autopsy, provided the entry points for the bacteria that killed him. He never received psychiatric care, though jail employees said they were well aware of his mental state. He never saw a city judge for a bond hearing. Inmates reported that Carpenter was handcuffed to his bed and unable to reach his food, though guards said he refused to let them remove his handcuffs to eat. He lost 23 pounds in the jail, according to one Sheriff's Department report. There is little indication that officers checked on Carpenter several times an hour as required. Carpenter's body lay in his cell for hours before it was discovered. No jail employees were ever disciplined in the case, though a report said that 32 jail employees, including the now-retired deputy warden, were responsible for Carpenter's death because they did not follow jail procedures. Even though it has not gone to trial, this case has seen its share of litigation. Lawyers have argued over admitting the confidential sheriff's reports, and defense lawyers sought to have Sikes sanctioned for later introducing the reports. |
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