Oklahoma County to pay $3M to a former inmate who claimed guards left him paralyzed

In an excessive use of force case dating back more than five years at the Oklahoma County jail, county commissioners agreed to pay $3 million to a former inmate who claimed guards left him paralyzed.

The settlement with Torrance Gene Jackson, 48, was entered earlier this month in Oklahoma City federal court.

Named in the lawsuit were three guards who worked under former Sheriff P.D. Taylor.

Attorneys for Jackson claim in the lawsuit that around 12:36 a.m. on Aug. 13, 2017, Oklahoma City police stopped Jackson for allegedly speeding.

Jackson eluded police and after a brief chase, he wrecked his car.

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Jackson exited the car, failed to comply with instructions from police, was tased and arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, speeding, driving while privilege revoked and attempting to elude peace officers.

Officers transported Jackson to an area hospital where Taser electrodes were removed from his body.

Officers later took Jackson to the Oklahoma County jail. One officer did not enter the jail. A second officer entered the jail search area then went to a lieutenant’s office to pick up a booking sheet.

According to the lawsuit, when the second police officer returned to the search area, the officer “observed Mr. Jackson lying on the ground” and heard him telling a guard “that he could not feel his legs.”

When the police officer asked a guard what happened to Jackson, the guard replied that he “had to take (Jackson) to the ground because (Jackson) refused to give them his shoes.”

The police officer reported seeing a bulge on the back of Jackson’s neck.

Jackson had been handcuffed or restrained with his hands behind his back when the incident and resulting injury occurred in the search area while the police officer went to retrieve a booking sheet, according to the lawsuit.

EMSA and the Oklahoma City Fire Department arrived at around 2:45 a.m.

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Unnamed jail employees told EMSA that Jackson “had an altercation” with one of the guards and “they slammed him to the ground,” according to the lawsuit.

Jackson was transported to OU Medical Center.

He told hospital personnel while he was being booked into the jail, his feet were kicked out from underneath him.  His hands were handcuffed behind him and his head hit the floor, the lawsuit said.

A spine surgeon diagnosed Jackson with a C-6-7 bilateral facet fracture dislocation with complete quadriplegia, lawyers claimed in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claimed a video of the incident shows one guard using an unapproved wrist lock technique while tripping Jackson, as two other guards did nothing to intervene.

Jackson’s quadriplegia is permanent, according to the lawsuit.

Internal investigation found use of force disproportionate

As the lawsuit wound through federal court, county commissioners denied Jackson’s allegations, according to filings.

However, an internal investigation by a sheriff’s lieutenant found that the guard’s “use of force actions and choice of applied techniques in grounding inmate Jackson were not reasonably proportionate to the amount of resistance being offered by inmate Jackson.”

The lieutenant went on to write in a report:

“It is my professional opinion that (the deputy) was not acting within the provided agency-based training or department guidelines, and that he was aware that what he was doing was outside of recognized best practices and training, and that his choice of technique had possibilities of injuries.”

A timeline of trouble: The Oklahoma County Jail under the Jail Trust.

A sheriff’s bureau commander wrote that other staff were present to help during the incident “but were not utilized.”

Taylor, the sheriff at the time, agreed with internal investigators that the guard in question should receive a written reprimand and more training on defensive tactics applied to take-downs and compliance.

In an interview with the investigations division, the guard said Jackson was yelling obscenities at staff concerning money recovered from his wallet, according to court documents.

During the incident, the guard told an internal investigator, he felt Jackson was about to get physically aggressive so he placed Jacskon in a wrist lock and leaned his body weight into him in an attempt to push him down to his knees.

The guard said he believed two other guards nearby would assist him, but “both failed to engage,” according to an investigator’s report.

The guard also stated he had never been trained on that particular compliance technique but had seen other guards use it on several occasions, according to the report.

More: Every inmate who died at the Oklahoma County Jail since the Trust took over

One of the nearby guards during the incident told the investigator that he didn’t engage because his fellow officer was more educated in use of force and had more training.

During previous attempts to assist with other incidents, the guard said, he was told “I got this” and to leave.

Geremy A. Rowland, attorney for Jackson, told The Oklahoman his client did not wish to discuss the lawsuit at this time.

“While we were obviously not able to erase the physical and emotional injuries that he sustained from this incident, my law partner and I hope that we were able to achieve some degree of substantive accountability on Torrance’s behalf,” Rowland said in an email.

Oklahoma County jail troubled over time, looks toward improvements

The $3 million settlement came just before The Oklahoman released an investigation into deaths at the jail since the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority, or "the trust," took over operations from the Sheriff’s Office on July 1, 2020.

The embattled jail has become — through homicides, drug overdoses, suicides and COVID-19 deaths — one of the deadliest in the nation. It was the subject of a multicounty grand jury investigation that concluded control of operations should be returned to the sheriff.

In its investigative series, The Oklahoman quoted Sheriff Tommie Johnson III saying taking over the jail is “not something I’d want to do, to be quite honest with you.”

Johnson, who serves on the jail trust, said should the jail be returned to sheriff’s office control, he would honor the obligation.

More: Commissioner: New jail to be 'night and day' improvement from current jail's problems

In a previous interview with The Oklahoman, Brian Maughan, District 2 commissioner for Oklahoma County, said he was against reverting control from the nine-member trust to the Sheriff’s Office.

Maughan argued that the trust provides checks and balances, and the jail should not be under the control of a sheriff.

“We don’t want to go backwards,” he said. “I don’t care if it was my own mother that was in charge of the jail, that’s too much responsibility, in my opinion, vested in one person.”

On Tuesday, the Oklahoma County jail issued a news release touting recent work by guards

“In the past week and a half, detention staff, with the assistance of several detainees, administered life-saving measures to save five detainees from possible drug overdoses,” the jail said. “In each incident, staff were aided by detainees who quickly recognized their fellow detainees in distress and called for help.”

Jail staff immediately administered Narcan, the overdose-reversal drug, to each inmate, the jail said. Staff administered 13 doses of Narcan in total.

“We cannot stress enough how the drug crisis in the community is making its way into the detention center,” Jail CEO Brandi Garner. “Every incoming detainee is thoroughly searched, and body scanned. However, the amount of fentanyl it takes to kill someone is so small, it is very hard to detect every time.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma County to pay $3M to ex-inmate after guards left him paralyzed