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| Ex-inmates tell judge about their treatment at Tenn. jail |
| By The Tennessean |
| Published: 02/09/2004 |
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A federal judge, trying to determine whether Wilson County (Tenn.) jail officials are intimidating potential witnesses in an ongoing civil suit about alleged abuse, heard several former inmates testify in U.S. District Court in Nashville. One man talked about being beaten so badly that he required a trip to a county hospital for treatment and a brain scan. Another described being hog-tied and bound to a floor drain in the drunk tank. It is part of a pattern of intimidation and abuse that plaintiffs' attorney Jerry Gonzalez says is hampering his efforts to find witnesses as he pursues lawsuits on behalf of Wilson County inmates. He wants U.S. District Judge Todd Campbell to issue an injunction to keep jailers from intimidating potential witnesses. The county counters that it is doing no such thing. The hearing is not designed to hear evidence about plaintiff Sergio Martinez's claims of jailhouse abuse and civil-rights violations. It is only to see if jail officials have somehow kept any potential witnesses from coming forth as Gonzalez prepares his case, now set for trial in November. The show-cause hearing that began last week is a long way from being over. One of Gonzalez's scheduled witnesses, Dexter Jones, was picked up by Wilson County officers a few days ago on an outstanding charge and put in jail. Jones then threatened to kill himself. Jailers, who say they remember once cutting Jones free of a jailhouse noose, said they put him on suicide watch and transferred him to a mental hospital where he remains. Gonzalez called the pre-hearing arrest ''very suspect,'' but defense attorney Jeff Beemer countered that the jail had done nothing wrong. Campbell allowed the hearing to proceed as scheduled last week, but it will have to resume this week at the earliest, or whenever Jones is well enough to attend. Only after that will Beemer begin to put on his defense. |
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