Jury Awards $352,300 to Prisoners Tortured at Notorious Utah Jail
After an investigation into rampant abuse by guards, Utah’s Daggett County Jail closed its doors in 2017. A group of four state prisoners held at the jail under contract with the state Department of Corrections (DOC) then filed suit the following year. The state Department of Corrections settled its share of the claims in November 2019 for $122,000, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Aug. 2020, p.60.] On April 23, 2024, a federal jury returned a verdict totaling $352,000 in favor of three of the four claims against the county.
The jail was shuttered after the investigation snared then-Sheriff Jerry Jorgensen and five of his deputies; they pleaded guilty to charges ranging from theft to aggravated assault and reckless endangerment while Jorgensen pled guilty to official misconduct. However, his plea was later withdrawn, and he retired.
But the investigation cost the county its contract with DOC, which withdrew all its prisoners, also taking away per-diem payments to house them that had provided almost 30% of Daggett County’s revenue. The jail had previously been in the news, too; after two convicted murderers escaped in 2007, it took over three hours for the only guard on duty to notice they were gone. Another escape occurred in 2015.
State prisoners Dustin L. Porter, Steven Drollette, Joshua Asay and Joshua Olsen cited jailers’ “unbelievably inhumane conduct” in their complaint. They raised claims under the Eighth Amendment and Art. 1, § IX of the Utah Constitution, which prohibits detainees from being subjected to “unnecessary rigor.” Plaintiffs stated that they “lived in fear for their lives, health, safety and welfare because of the ongoing abuse they and other prisoners experienced.” They further alleged that Sheriff Jorgensen had a policy which could be summarized: “If it wasn’t on camera, it didn’t happen.”
Drollette said he was required by Deputy Joshua Cox to submit to a Taser shock as part of “initiation” onto a work crew. Cox also allegedly ordered a K9 to attack Drollette, injuring his hands and leg, after which he was threatened with retaliation if he requested medical care. Porter described how Cox punched him, put him in a headlock and choked him, and “stuck his finger up inside [Porter’s] nose, and pulled [him] backward onto the ground.” After this incredible display of petty cruelty, the deputy reportedly bragged: “This badge says I can do anything I want to anyone here.” Porter said he also was twice subjected to Taser shocks. Asay said Cox once unholstered a gun and pointed it at his face. Other deputies who were aware of these incidents failed to intervene or report them.
A DOC investigation found that Cox had “tased inmates without provocation, using a stolen taser,” and that he also “required inmates to participate in training for his police service dog.” The deputy also “was seen on camera assaulting inmates,” DOC said, citing “numerous policy and criminal violations.” Largely denying Defendants’ motion to dismiss the prisoners’ complaint on February 4, 2022, the federal court for the District of Utah noted that Jorgensen knew how on-duty guards “would watch television” or “engage in horseplay and wrestling with each other.” See: Porter v. Daggett Cty., 587 F.Supp.3d 1105 (D. Utah 2022).
After the suit went to trial, jurors found that Daggett County had a policy or custom of “failing to adequately supervise or discipline its employees,” resulting in cruel and unusual punishment of all the prisoners except Porter. Drollette was awarded $65,000 in compensatory damages, with $228,800 to Asay and $58,500 to Olsen, for a total of $352,300. Plaintiffs were represented by attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah Foundation and The Bronx Defenders. See: Porter v. Daggett Cty., USDC (D. Utah), Case No. 2:18-cv-00389.
The shuttered Daggett County Jail is presently for sale at a list price of $3.5 million.
Additional sources: Axios, KSTU