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| Family Gets $1 Million in Son's Death Caused By Escaped Inmate |
| By Columbus Dispatch |
| Published: 03/18/2002 |
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Charles Dials was carjacked while driving past the Franklin County Courthouse. With a few phone calls, a doctor at the Franklin County jail would have been warned that inmate Alva Campbell might be faking his paralysis. That evidence was in a deposition taken for a lawsuit filed by the family of Charles Dials, whom Campbell killed during a 1997 escape. The family recently settled for $1 million with the company that provided medical services at the jail. That brought to more than $3 million the awards or settlements stemming from the slaying. The settlement between Dials' family and Correctional Medical Services was recorded recently in Franklin County Probate Court. Both sides reportedly agreed not to discuss the settlement. Campbell jumped out of a wheelchair as he was being brought to the county courthouse on April 2, 1997, and overpowered a deputy. The deputy had not handcuffed Campbell because she thought he was a paraplegic. Campbell took the deputy's gun and used it to commandeer Dials' pickup and later kill the 18-year-old. What the deputy, Teresa Harrison, said she didn't know was that Dr. Vincent Spagna had said Campbell was suffering from a psychosomatic paralysis from a head wound and might be able to walk. Had Spagna checked with Mount Carmel West he would have learned those tests had been done and there was no medical reason for Campbell's legs to be paralyzed, according to a deposition by a surgeon. The hospital treated Campbell for a gunshot wound suffered when a store manager shot him during a robbery attempt. A prison psychiatrist said Campbell should have been supervised more closely and that two deputies should have escorted him as he was moved. |
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