by Dale Chappell

Green Island, New York, taxpayers will pay $375,000 to settle a federal lawsuit after police there beat a man so badly his leg had to be amputated when jail medical staff ignored his injury.

According to the lawsuit, Kevin Kavanaugh surrendered to police after a high-speed chase but was beaten with a blu and kicked while handcuffed, and had his leg twisted by an officer until the bones snapped.

At the Albany County Jail, Correctional Medical Care, a private, for-profit medical provider for the jail, ignored Kavanaugh’s pleas for help for days. When they finally decided to help Kavanaugh, it was too late. His leg was dead and had to cut off.

“They actually killed his leg,” his lawyer, Lee Kindon, said. One of the officers who testified at a pre-trial deposition said that at the jail Kavanaugh was complaining of extreme pain in his leg and that it “just looked like a dead leg, grayish white.”

Out of the several agencies that had a hand in the mistreatment of Kavanaugh, “CMC’s actions always bothered me the most,” his lawyer said. “The way Correctional Medical Care worked is they got money if they didn’t send people to the hospital.”

This is not the first time Albany County taxpayers had to pay for CMC’s lack of medical care. In 2016, the Commissioner of Correction found that CMC’s treatment of Mark Cannon was “so grossly inadequate … it shocks the conscience.” In that case, Cannon’s estate settled with Albany County for $1.1 million after CMC ignored that Cannon was having a stroke and he died. [See PLN, July 2018]

Once again, taxpayers will bear the burden of paying for CMC’s lack of medical care, coupled with a serious injury caused by its own police department.

Source: thefreethoughtproject.com

Subscribe today

Already a subscriber? Login