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A federal jury found a private company running a Louisiana jail liable for the 2015 death of a man who died of head injuries he received while in custody, and awarded the family more than $40m in damages.
Attorneys representing Erie Moore Sr’s family say they believe the verdict handed down this week in the western district of Louisiana is among the highest-ever jury awards for an in-custody death in the US.
“For the past 10 years, my sisters and I have been tormented knowing he is not resting easy,” said his son, Erie Moore Jr. “This trial has shined light where there was darkness. It has brought our family truth, justice, and peace.”
Moore was a 57-year-old mill worker father of three with no criminal history who was arrested on 12 October, 2015 for disturbing the peace at a doughnut shop in Monroe, Louisiana.
Moore became “agitated and noncompliant” while being taken into custody at Richwood correctional center, according to court filings. His attorney, Max Schoening, says Moore was “mentally unwell” at the time he was taken into custody.
Schoening says guards pepper-sprayed him at least eight times during the 36 hours he was in jail.
Court records, including footage from jail security cameras submitted as evidence and viewed by the Associated Press, show Moore being brought down forcefully by several guards. Other footage shows the guards picking up Moore by his legs and handcuffed hands when one of the guards stumbled, and Moore’s head lands on the ground.
Moore was then brought to a secluded area of the jail without security cameras. He was kept there, out of sight, for nearly two hours, during which no one called for medical attention, court records show.
“The jury found the guards continued to use excessive force against Mr Moore in the camera-less area,” Schoening said. “When sheriffs from another law enforcement agency arrived to pick him up to transport him to another jail they found him unconscious and completely unresponsive.”
When Moore eventually arrived at the hospital hours, he was already in a coma and died about a month later, court records show. The Ouachita parish coroner ruled Moore’s death a homicide due to the head injuries.
A federal jury found three guards liable for negligence, battery and excessive force. The jury also found LaSalle Management Co, which runs Richwood correctional center, liable for causing the death of Moore due to the negligence of at least one of its guards.
No one has been criminally charged in Moore’s death, Schoening added.
The jury ordered LaSalle and Richwood to pay $23.25m in punitive damages and $19.5m in compensation to Moore’s three adult children.
“This is the largest compensatory damage award I have ever heard of,” said Jay Aronson, a Carnegie Mellon University professor and author of Death in Custody: How America Ignores the Truth and What We Can Do about It.
The Richwood correctional center now serves as a federal immigration detention site.
