Article 28: August 2022
Further cases of inmate abuse within county jail
Court allows another inmate suit to proceed
A federal court in Muskogee has allowed another lawsuit filed by a McCurtain County Jail inmate to move forward, court records show.
It’s the second such federal suit filed in the past few months.
U.S. District Judge Ronald White last week allowed inmate Byron C. Young Jr. to pursue his civil suit against sheriff Kevin Clardy, jail administrator Larry Hendrix, others working at the McCurtain County Jail, and the Board of County Commissioners.
Young claims after he sought charges against a jail employee, that Hendrix, without a court order or hearing, transferred him to the Choctaw County Jail, where several inmates assaulted him more than 100 times while a jail officer watched and laughed.
Young said he was then transferred back to McCurtain County, where he was taken to the emergency room for treatment.
Hendrix had formerly been undersheriff in Choctaw County and still lives there.
Young also claims that while in the McCurtain County Jail, he suffered pepper spray injuries, was given a blue detergent and told it would help, but instead it caused him extreme pain when it reached his genitalia. He claimed a jailer laughed at his suffering extreme pain in that area.
In addition to another recent federal suit by an inmate alleging extreme physical abuse while he was in custody here, records show that Hendrix also continues to face a federal suit that was pending at the time when was hired by McCurtain County.
In that Choctaw County case filed in Muskogee, plaintiff Newton Cook Jr., alleges he suffered injuries to the head, face, eyes, broken ribs and vision loss when Hendrix searched his house without a warrant.
Cook claims Hendrix was the officer who kicked him in the ribs.
Both he and Young are seeking actual and punitive damages. Young is seeking millions of dollars in damages.
