|
The Orlando Sentinel archive GHOST MAY TELL OF JAIL STRUGGLEAttorney Wants Jury to Feel What Sagers FeltBy Chris Cobbs of The Sentinel Staff An inmate whose family says he was fatally beaten at the Osceola County Jail will seem to speak from the grave in a courtroom next year, his family's lawyer said. Evoking the ghost of Daniel B. Sagers, who died March 12, 1997, Sagers family attorney E. Clay Parker of Orlando will try to make a circuit court jury experience the inmate's pain. The family has sued the county for $20 million. Parker said he has offered to settle out of court with the county but is also preparing a plan of attack in case the case goes to trial sometime next year. ``We will seek to have the jury focus on the inhumane and cruel treatment used by the guards in a knowing and indifferent way,'' Parker said. The goal of his emotional appeal, describing punches, kicks and a towel used to pull the inmate's head back, would be a ruling against the county. That could wind up costing taxpayers millions of dollars, to be borrowed from a bank or paid from the general fund. County officials have played down the possibility that taxes could go up if the county loses the suit. But the clock is ticking. The longer the county delays in settling, the more the legal bills mount - and the greater the county's exposure to a potential seven-figure jury award, Parker said: ``Better to pay now than pay later.'' It's an unsettling prospect - and one county officials are reluctant to address. Their strategy is one of delay, hoping time will diminish attention paid to the case. In the year since the inmate's death, there have been two investigations, a grand jury hearing and criminal indictments, along with the civil suit. Criminal trials are pending for two fired corrections officers - one charged with manslaughter, the other with aggravated battery - and there's a possibility another grand jury will be convened to examine the jail further. ``It's too early to tell if the county made a mistake, and I'm not going to second-guess the people we have running the jail now,'' said County Commission Chairman Chuck Dunnick. ``We have some good people out there, and I'm not going to pull the rug out from under them. That's not a good way to do business.'' Sagers, 37, died a week after his arrest and subsequent 40-minute brawl with corrections officers. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide, and two officers are awaiting trial as a special prosecutor considers another grand jury proceeding. ``No matter what spin you put on it - like saying Sagers was a man with the strength of 1,000 Goliaths - this was a man killed by police brutality,'' Parker said. Less than a week before the arrest of Sagers, the county had assumed responsibility for the jail from Sheriff Charlie Croft. The Parker lawsuit holds both the county and the Sheriff's Office responsible for the death of Sagers. At least one county official who formerly favored privatizing the jail has mixed feelings about the course of events. ``We took over an ill organization,'' said Commissioner Mary Jane Arrington. ``The cures are long and hard. We're working to bring it up to the level we want, but it's not healed yet. This is government, and we can't just eliminate line employees because they don't share the same philosophy as the jail director or the board.'' Commissioner Ken Shipley said he isn't taking as many aspirins as he did before the county took over the jail, which had a string of directors in a four-year period, among other problems. ``My anguish level has gone down,'' he said. ``If the jail had been a business, you could say it was on the verge of folding when we got it. Strides have been made. But the whole process is just 75 percent and I want to see 110 percent.'' In addition to a monetary award, Parker wants the Sagers case to lead to change in Florida's system of jail oversight. Until a few years ago, the state Department of Corrections regularly inspected county jails, but the inspections ended when the Legislature cut funding. Parker said he wants those inspections restored as a way of policing the police. ``As it stands, no family is immune from what happened to Danny Sagers,'' Parker said.
Related articles:
Copyright 2000, Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. |
