Night in the cells accidentally became 2 years in solitary. Victim wins $22mill

[Martinus]

Ok so let me get this straight: other than the intent behind it, how is this case different from Sergei Magnitsky's case? At least Magnitsky got a (kangaroo) trial - this guy effectively was killed (the lung cancer will kill him soon) by illegal imprisonment.

Where is the outrage over people guilty of this not being brought to justice?

[Camerus]

The story can't be simply as reported here, or there's no way the prison staff wouldn't be facing criminal charges...

[CountDeMoney]

The story can't be simply as reported here, or there's no way the prison staff wouldn't be facing criminal charges...

This is America, man.  Nobody goes to jail for sending people to jail.  You just get sued.

[mongers]

The story can't be simply as reported here, or there's no way the prison staff wouldn't be facing criminal charges...

This is America, man.  Nobody goes to jail for sending people to jail.  You just get sued.

Yeah you don't put burdensome government regulation in the way of a growth industry.

[OttoVonBismarck]

A Kangaroo court is different to me because it's active and intentional miscarriage of justice. This guy basically fell through the cracks and was neglected. Neither should happen, but one is the difference between me crippling a child by staking it to the driveway and driving over its legs with my 8,000 lb truck and me crippling a child by letting them play around dangerous construction equipment and falling and paralyzing themselves from the waist down. Both should be punished as parental lapses but one is vastly more serious an offense in my mind.

From what I can see basically a few things conspired against this guy. One, the court system for some reason took a very long time to handle his drunk driving case. Two years isn't normal, at least here in the Commonwealth of Virginia where drunk driving cases are usually fully disposed of within four months time. Two, it appears he was kept confined during his pretrial period (which as stated, was way longer than is normal) because he was deemed incompetent in some way. However, instead of getting diverted permanently to a psychiatric facility as would have happened here in Virginia it seems like he got shuffled back and forth between the jail and such a facility once or twice and was mostly forgotten about. I think a lot of bureaucratic fuck ups must have happened, and basically because this guy was unable to advocate for himself and he didn't have any really good advocate on the outside there was no external force able to help him. At least in Virginia a half-drunk public defender would have been aware enough to make sure this kind of thing didn't happen, apparently in Arizona they don't run their shit nearly as well.

All of that means a system that was extremely derelict in its responsibilities and a man deserving of remuneration, but it's not the same as a system intentionally falsely convicting and imprisoning someone.

[OttoVonBismarck]

Where I am right now in life, I would not do 2 years for $22mil (or $15mil), but in my younger days before I was married and before I had a kid and when my finances weren't so good I'd be inclined to try two years in solitary for that kind of bank. Obviously "knowing" you only had to do two years, and being sane, would probably be big advantages over a guy who was already mentally unstable and was quickly pushed over the edge by prolonged solitary (something that can mess up even mentally stable persons.)

[alfred russel]

Back when I was in high school I had a job bagging groceries, and a guy there got arrested for damaging a toilet in a bar. Sort of like this guy he fell through the cracks and stayed in jail 30 days without any type of hearing, and when the authorities figured it out they just let him go.

The guy was really dumb--probably a borderline mental handicap--and didn't seem to have any friends or close family.

[Ideologue]

I think I might try a month for $645,000.  Two years for the full $15.5m?  No way.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I think I might try a month for $645,000.  Two years for the full $15.5m?  No way.

Well a month is nothing. I think you'd have to go at least a year to get any amount, otherwise it's not even a real test. People have gone through worse, I guess is why I can imagine this. Many WWII POWs didn't get a penny and were held for longer, same for Vietnam veteran POWs. They came back and lead productive lives.

[Admiral Yi]

Well a month is nothing. I think you'd have to go at least a year to get any amount, otherwise it's not even a real test. People have gone through worse, I guess is why I can imagine this. Many WWII POWs didn't get a penny and were held for longer, same for Vietnam veteran POWs. They came back and lead productive lives.

On the other hand Bruce Dern tried to blow up the Super Bowl.

[dps]

Ok so let me get this straight: other than the intent behind it, how is this case different from Sergei Magnitsky's case? At least Magnitsky got a (kangaroo) trial - this guy effectively was killed (the lung cancer will kill him soon) by illegal imprisonment.

Where is the outrage over people guilty of this not being brought to justice?

I have serious doubts that the lung cancer was caused by his confinement.

[CountDeMoney]

I have serious doubts that the lung cancer was caused by his confinement.

OK, doctor.

[DontSayBanana]

Is this how we gave Chavez cancer now?

[OttoVonBismarck]

Well a month is nothing. I think you'd have to go at least a year to get any amount, otherwise it's not even a real test. People have gone through worse, I guess is why I can imagine this. Many WWII POWs didn't get a penny and were held for longer, same for Vietnam veteran POWs. They came back and lead productive lives.

On the other hand Bruce Dern tried to blow up the Super Bowl.

Wait, which movie is that a reference to? I'm drawing a blank.

[Admiral Yi]

Wait, which movie is that a reference to? I'm drawing a blank.

Black Sunday.  Bruce Dern was blimp pilot.