COUNTY ADVISED TO PAY INMATE; MOLESTER MAY GET $150,000.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County should pay a convicted child molester Noun 1. child molester - a man who has sex (usually sodomy) with a boy as the passive partner paederast, pederast degenerate, deviant, deviate, pervert - a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior $150,000 in damages because jailers allegedly ignored his cries for help as fellow inmates beat him, the county's lawyer recommended. The money would settle a claim by John Eric Chambers, 26, who said he suffered physical injury and emotional distress emotional distress n. an increasingly popular basis for a claim of damages in lawsuits for injury due to the negligence or intentional acts of another. Originally damages for emotional distress were only awardable in conjunction with damages for actual physical harm. from the attack, county counsel wrote. The counsel ``took into consideration the nature of the offenses Chambers had been charged with, but on balance believed that under the circumstances, the potential for greater economic liability weighed in favor of settling,'' said Lloyd W. Pellman, senior assistant county counsel. Chambers was convicted of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in Saugus in 1996. He was awaiting transfer to state prison when he was attacked by a dozen inmates at the Men's Central Jail. A judge had ordered that he be kept under suicide watch suicide watch n. A procedural tour of duty in a prison in which guards frequently check the cells of inmates suspected of suicidal tendencies. in the psychiatric ward, but deputies moved him to a cell block with other inmates, documents show. ``We believe a jury will conclude that the county and its employees are liable because John Chambers John Chambers could be any of the following people:
A jury possibly could award Chambers $1.1 million in damages, Ambrose said. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the issue Tuesday. Chambers pleaded no contest to molesting the girl in March 1996. While in jail awaiting sentencing, he was prescribed psychotropic psychotropic /psy·cho·tro·pic/ (si?ko-tro´pik) exerting an effect on the mind; capable of modifying mental activity; said especially of drugs. psy·cho·tro·pic adj. medication but didn't take the pills, documents show. He grew more anxious, said he was hearing voices and tried to commit suicide three times in seven months; he once tried to break his neck with his bare hands, according to documents and his attorney. In August, he was sentenced to three years in state prison. He was put with the general population pending his transfer, even though a judge ordered that he be kept in isolation, county documents show. Inmates taunted him, chanting ``Chester the molester Chester the Molester was a comic strip by the late Dwaine B. Tinsley (1945-2000), who was Hustler magazine‘s cartoon editor. As the title suggests, the premise of the strip was a tongue-in-cheek take on a man, Chester, who was interested in sexually molesting ,'' Chambers said. On Sept. 25, 1996, he cried for help as a dozen inmates beat him but deputies didn't respond until he got up and pounded on a guard's door. He suffered several injuries including a skull fracture skull fracture, n a rupture or break in the cranial bones. skull fracture Orthopedics A fracture of one or more cranial bones, caused by MVAs, falls, assault, sports, occupational accidents and other forms of blunt trauma , loss of hearing in his right ear and blurred vision. He continues to receive psychiatric treatment for the emotional distress. Chambers was released from prison in January after serving 15 months. Chambers' beating is one of at least 13 attacks being investigated internally by the Sheriff's Department after allegations arose that deputies encouraged attacks on jailed sex offenders. At least two sheriff's employees have been fired as a result of the investigation. Chambers' case was the first of its kind to be reviewed by the county counsel. In a September 1997 report, the U.S. Justice Department found that some inmates ``report their mental illness, but are then lost in the jail system, misclassified and placed in unsafe housing, or transferred repeatedly between facilities. . . . They are the victims of predatory behavior at the hands of other inmates and have been abused by correctional staff.'' |
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