$35,000 Settlement in Kentucky Excessive Force Suit
Kentucky’s Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government agreed to pay $35,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in state court that alleged a guard used excessive force against a prisoner at the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections.
The settlement came in a suit brought by former prisoner Pamela Wiley-Stiger, who claimed jailers Edwin O’Bannon and Colby Noland had violated her “civil rights by assaulting and battering her and, without cause, subjecting her to solitary confinement.” Wiley-Stiger alleged that on March 27, 2013, O’Bannon came up behind her, twisted her arms behind her back, “slammed her hard” on a table and then onto the concrete floor before dragging her out of the cell block.
O’Bannon countered that Wiley-Stiger became combative, and he slipped and fell while she was within his grasp; she continued to be combative and other guards had to help handcuff and carry her to a cell. An internal investigation found O’Bannon had violated the jail’s use of force policy because his actions “were not an attempt to defuse the situation, but rather his actions escalated the situation.”
According to the complaint, Wiley-Stiger suffered a shoulder injury that required “corrective surgery.” The $35,000 settlement was reached on June 30, 2017; Wiley-Stiger was represented by Louisville attorney Kenneth H. Baker. See: Wiley-Stiger v. O’Bannon, Jefferson Circuit Court (KY), Case No. 14-CI-01727.
Additional source: www.wdrb.com
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Related legal case
Wiley-Stiger v. O’Bannon
| Year | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Cite | Jefferson Circuit Court (KY), Case No. 14-CI-01727 |
| Damages | 35,000 |