CAPE GIRARDEAU — A suit recently filed in federal court accuses Wayne County law enforcement and jail personnel of subjecting a Hazelwood man to cruel and unusual punishment by leaving him confined in a “restraint chair” for five days.
Poplar Bluff Attorney Steve Walsh filed the suit in U.S. District Court, Southeast Division, in Cape Girardeau on behalf of Albert Odhiambo Okal, 44, of Hazelwood.
Named as defendants in the suit are: Wayne County; Sheriff Dean Finch; jailers, Jesse Chaffin, Troy DeClue, Chris Schulz, Chris Canoy, Sandra Alvarado, Jeremy Robinson and LaCresha Covin; deputies, Logan Allen, Mark Yount, John England, Larry Robinson, Kyle Allen, Brandon Waggoner and Travis Hanger; and dispatchers, John Pennington, Dillan Sutton, Amanda Dickerson, Malorie Shriver and Sarah England.
Finch had no comment when contacted about the suit.
At this time, “I’m not going to say a word,” said Wayne County Presiding Commissioner Brian Polk.
Okal, according to his suit, was housed in the Wayne County Jail from Dec. 26, 2016, to April 26, 2017.
Okal had been transferred from the St. Louis County Jail to Wayne County on a DWI charge.
He was transported to Wayne County by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on a 24-hour hold on suspicion of DWI.
Okal later was charged with felony DWI and spent four months in the Wayne County Jail prior to his release after being sentenced.
Okal, according to Casenet, pleaded guilty April 25, 2017, to the Class D felony of DWI (persistent offender) and was sentenced to four years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, with suspended execution of his sentence. He was placed on five years’ supervised probation.
On March 5, 2018, Okal’s probation was revoked, and he was ordered to serve his four-year prison term. He was released on parole on July 16.
Okal’s suit alleges the defendants deprived him of his rights under the U.S. Constitution, including his right to be protected from cruel and unusual punishment, be given access to medical care and protected from deliberate indifference to substantial medical needs, as well as due process, as guaranteed under the Eighth Amendment. He also cites violations under Missouri’s Constitution.
Okal’s complaint says shortly after he was booked into the Wayne County Jail he began to suffer from hallucinations, paranoia and manic behavior, the origin/reason for such behavior is unknown.
Jailers, the complaint further says, moved Okal from one cell to another, and “yet his behavior was, according to the defendants, disturbing to the order of the jail population.
“On authority from defendant Finch, (Okal) was placed in the restraint chair … The chair exists through the Wayne County Jail manual as a form of discipline to keep order in the jail.”
Inmates hands and feet allegedly are strapped while they are in the chair.
Okal’s complaint further says the jail manual calls for medical assessment of an inmate in the chair after being constantly observed for two hours. After the two-hour period, there is to be documentation and a log maintained every 15 minutes the inmate is in the chair.
Okal alleges the defendants allowed him to remain in the chair for five days and failed to document his activities while there.
During those five days, Okal further alleges he was not released from the chair to use the restroom, which caused him to urinate and defecate in his pants.
Okal also alleges he was not allowed to eat food or drink water with his own hands, but was “forcefully fed food and water down his throat.”
For a period of at least 24 hours, the complaint alleges, the defendants allowed a blanket to be placed over his head.
At the end of the five days, the complaint further alleges, Chaffin took Okal, who was in a wheelchair, into a cell block and told the other inmates to clean him up.
The inmates reportedly protested Okal coming to their cell block, thinking “he was from a nursing home and realized the foul smell from his body was overwhelming.”
The complaint said the inmates cleaned Okal in the cell, using the only water available, which was described as scalding hot water.
The complaint alleges the defendants failed to seek a medical assessment and assistance for Okal, as well as seek psychiatric care and assistance after he “was clearly seen having disturbed mental and/or emotional problems.”
The defendants, the complaint says, violated jail policy by failing to do medical assessments during the five days Okal was in the chair, as well as by failing to maintain a log sheet every 15 minutes of his condition.
The complaint said Wayne County is obligated to provide adequate training and supervision for its jailers, as well as provide a sufficient number who are capable of carrying out its written jail policy.
“Wayne County had jail policies, training and supervision that were inadequate, insufficient and did not protect the medical and mental safety needs of inmates being screened and housed in the Wayne County Jail,” the complaint further says.
The county’s jail policy, according to the complaint, also did not provide a maximum amount of time that an inmate could remain seated and restrained in the chair.
The defendants, according to complaint, knew or should have known their actions toward Okal in the chair “would result in physical and mental injury to (him) and that he was, in fact, undergoing a form of torture …”
The complaint further says Okal suffered physical pain, emotional trauma and a decline in the quality of his life following his incarceration in the Wayne County Jail, as well as “suffered great psychological anguish following his incarceration.”
In his complaint, Okal asks to be awarded compensatory damages in a fair amount, as well as punitive damages and attorneys fees.