Damages awarded to man who suffered in jail with broken neck
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – A federal jury has ruled that Knox County owes a former inmate $2,000 for each of the 70 days behind bars the man spent with an undiagnosed and untreated broken neck that was causing him so much pain that he considered killing himself.
The Knoxville News Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2cEcInj ) reports that a jury on Wednesday awarded 62-year-old Donald R. Nichols $140,000 in damages for the pain, mental suffering and humiliation he endured in 2010 while housed at the Roger D. Wilson Detention Facility outside Knoxville.
Nichols broke his neck when he rolled off his cell’s top bunk and fell onto a concrete floor in August 2010. A nurse ordered an X-ray the next day, but none was ordered for 70 days.
Nichols eventually had surgery and now walks on a cane.
