Convicted Sex Offender To Receive $17.5 Million Payout After Being Paralysed By Guards

A convicted sex offender will be awarded $17.5 million (£12.9m) after he was tackled by corrections officers and left paralysed.

Seth Fletcher, 21, was two months away from being released from Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ohio when he was tackled to the ground and handcuffed following a strip search.

In the lawsuit, Fletcher's lawyers claimed the officers involved had used 'sadistic and malicious force' when dealing with him.

Fletcher says his pleas for help went unanswered and he was left lying in his cell overnight unable to move, before he was taken to hospital the next day.

One of the guards involved in the incident later wrote on Facebook that he had 'paralysed the dude LMAO'.

The incident occurred on 2 April last year, after guards suspected Fletcher of having a cigarette that contained drugs.

Two corrections officers then handcuffed Fletcher and attempted to take him to the segregation unit when he pulled away.

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Fletcher was then tackled to the ground and suffered a severe injury to his spinal cord.

According to The Columbus Dispatch, Fletcher said he was unable to move or feel his legs, but that officers at the prison didn't take his complaints seriously and even dropped him on his face several times as they tried to carry him to the cell.

Fletcher says despite repeated pleading for medical help he was ignored until the following morning.

His attorneys claimed when he asked for water they poured it over his face and one guard later said on Facebook 'we also water board[ed] him LMAO'.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger told CBS: "The torture and crippling of a prisoner in America sounds medieval. Yet it happened, here, in America, in 2020.

"As horrific as this case is, I want to thank the Ohio Attorney General's office and Governor Dewine for accepting responsibility in this most horrific of cases. This abuse should never happen again."

Fletcher was serving a two-year sentence for pandering sexual material involving minors when he was 18.

According to the Daily Mail, Fletcher's lawyers say the case centred on a 'consensual' tape he made with his 16-year-old girlfriend.

He is now living in a nursing home, but his mum says the money will go towards adapting the family home so she can care for her son.

Topics: US News, crime, Prison

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at LADbible who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats. You can contact Claire at [email protected]

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