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| Jail inmate seeking $10 million in complaint |
| By Naples Daily News |
| Published: 08/01/2005 |
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A Collier County (Fla.) jail inmate arrested after a deputy planted contraband in his cell has filed a federal civil rights complaint that alleges he was handcuffed, hit in the face with pepper spray, dragged 20 feet and made to sit for more than two hours to be booked. Reid Steward, 26, is seeking $10 million from Richard Scammon, the now-former deputy who planted a handcuff key in the cell, as well as from Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter and jail chief Chris Freeman. Steward, of Isles of Capri, filed the complaint July 20 in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers. Scammon was fired and later charged with perjury and falsification of official records by a public servant. He pleaded no contest and received two years' probation in February. On April 15, 2004, Scammon planted a handcuff key hidden inside a piece of cake inside Steward's cell while the inmate was at visitation. Scammon then searched the cell afterward and announced he had discovered the key. The scam was an attempt to impress his supervisors with his ability to discover banned materials inside the jail, officials said. When he was confronted with the handcuff key, Steward accused Scammon of setting him up and asked to speak to a supervisor. That request was denied, so Steward refused to get dressed and leave his cell, he wrote in his complaint, which he wrote by hand and filed by himself from jail. After the inmate's refusal to cooperate, Scammon ordered Steward to put his hands on the cell wall so he could be cuffed. While Steward did so, Scammon sprayed him repeatedly in the face and upper chest with pepper spray, according to the complaint. Steward alleged Scammon and another deputy dragged him to a dayroom, cuffed his hands behind his back and escorted him to the medical wing for a shower to remove the pepper spray residue from his skin. The deputies then took Steward to the booking area and forced him to sit in a holding cell while he was "in extreme pain and unable to see and kept there for 21/2 hours before being processed for the new charge and returned to my cell," according to the complaint. Steward said he suffered severe pain, swelling and blurred vision afterward. He filed a grievance with jail officials. Investigators discovered Scammon had planted evidence in the cells of Steward and three other inmates in a brief period. It was rare to find that much contraband so quickly, jail officials said. After he was questioned, Scammon demanded to take a lie-detector test, which he failed, according to court records. The Sheriff's Office fired him, and he was arrested Oct. 18, 2004. Prosecutors dropped the charge against Steward, possession of contraband inside a jail. The complaint seeks $2.5 million each from Hunter and Freeman and $5 million from Scammon. |
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