Man Sues Jail Staff For Abuse But Officials Say Inmate Was Violent

Kootenai County Jail officials say Steven G. Brown was the worst inmate they ever had.

He was violent, threatened to kill them, bit himself until he bled and smeared feces over jail walls, they say.

But Brown, who spent time in the jail for armed robbery, is now suing the jail staff for abusing him.

He said they chained him to a toilet grate in the floor, left him naked, strapped to a restraint board and sprayed him down with a hose instead of giving him a shower.

On Tuesday, the case went to trial in U.S. District Court, with Brown taking the stand not only as the alleged victim but also as his own attorney.

Brown is suing 16 jail deputies, Sheriff Pierce Clegg, county commissioners and a jail doctor. He is asking for $98,000 in damages.

County officials insist they have done nothing wrong. Brown “engaged in the most continuously disruptive pattern of behavior of any inmate ever housed at the Kootenai County Jail,” one deputy said in court documents.

Court records show Brown has spent time in various hospitals and institutions. The 38-year-old former Newport, Wash., man said he suffers from schizophrenia, depression and other disorders. He served time in prison for a California robbery.

On Nov. 28, 1991, Brown robbed both the Sandman Motel in Coeur d’Alene and the Jackpot Food Mart in Post Falls. He was later sentenced to 10 years to life in prison for the crimes.

But before going to prison, he spent eight months in county jail.

“I admit I was a problem to them but that doesn’t warrant (their) actions toward me,” Brown testified Tuesday.

Brown suffered from herpes when he was booked into the jail. He said jail employees failed to get him immediate medical attention for the condition, which began to flare inside the jail.

He admitted plugging a toilet with a towel when deputies wouldn’t listen to him. But he said they then chained him to a grate in the cell floor with no bedding and no mattress. He said he had to urinate and defecate on himself.

“My arms went numb, my feet started swelling,” he said. “I could not handle the pain any longer.”

He said he bit through his jail clothes and into his flesh in order to get attention - and medicine for his herpes.

He also said he was strapped to a restraining board for days at a time.

“Whose idea was the restraint board?” Brown quizzed Lt. Jeraldine Riggs during her testimony.

“We tried the restraining chair and you totally demolished it, so it was our only option,” she answered.

On Tuesday, jail officials admitted restraining Brown with both a board and a chair. They also admitted chaining him to the cell grate and cleaning him off with a garden hose.

But “the deputies acted out of concern for his safety, out of concern for the other inmates’ safety and out of concern for their own safety,” said Michelle Fulgham, attorney for the county.

Brown had shredded his jail overalls and his mattress and injured three deputies, Fulgham said. Brown smeared fecal matter and urine on himself and on the jail walls and threw a cup full of feces and urine in the face of a deputy, Fulgham said.

Riggs said she tried to make sure

Brown was as comfortable as possible when being restrained. She said his hands and feet were checked every 15 minutes to make sure he had good circulation.

“The defendants were pushed to a point of having no choice,” Fulgham said. “Kootenai County Jail has not seen the likes of him before or after.”

The trial is expected to last through the week. Brown is again being held at the jail during his stay in Coeur d’Alene. Riggs told the jury he has not been a problem.

, DataTimes