Md. to pay $7M to man paralyzed in custody
Settlement over 2014 jail attack by gang members ends years of litigation
Maryland officials on Wednesday ended years of litigation by agreeing to pay $7 million to a Baltimore man who was beaten and left paralyzed in a notoriously violent state-run jail, where he was being held on a burglary charge because he could not afford to post $800 bail.
Daquan Wallace, now 28, was attacked so viciously by gang members in 2014 in the old Baltimore City Detention Center that he suffered catastrophic brain damage, rendering him unable to walk or speak, according to his lawyer. After Wallace sued the state, a trial jury awarded him $25 million, ruling that “negligently trained or supervised” guards “were the direct and proximate cause of his injuries.”
But the judge in the case lowered the award to $200,000, saying a state law required the reduction.
Bowing to the possibility that Maryland’s Supreme Court might have eventually ruled in favor of a much higher award — perhaps even reinstating the $25 million — the three-member Maryland Board of Public Works, which controls significant state spending, voted unanimously Wednesday to settle the case for $7 million.
Wallace’s attorney, Cary L. Hansel, called the decision “historic.”
“It isn’t just a problem of a single [corrections] officer or a few officers,” he said after the board meeting in Annapolis, which Wallace attended in a borrowed, broken wheelchair. “It’s systemic — a system built around turning away misconduct, permitting it to happen” and “not allowing for sufficient [financial] recovery when it does,” Hansel said.
Citing rampant violence and gang activity in the men’s facility of the Baltimore City Detention Center, Gov. Larry Hogan (R) ordered it closed in 2015, a year after Wallace was assaulted.
With Wednesday’s meeting adjourned, Maryland Treasurer Dereck E. Davis (D) and Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) approached Wallace, who was sitting beside his grandmother. “I’m
so sorry this happened and I’m glad we can provide some resources to you and your family moving forward,” Lierman told him. “Something like this should never happen.”
Hansel said the money will allow his client, who lost the use of his legs and right arm, to buy a “fancy new motorized chair” and pay for medical and rehabilitative care. Asked what the settlement means to him, Wallace responded by typing a text message with his somewhat functional left hand, saying he hopes to “get back to my normal life.”
On Sept. 14, 2014, Wallace, lacking $800 bail, was ordered held in the detention center’s since-demolished men’s facility on a burglary charge that was eventually dismissed. In a lawsuit filed in Baltimore Circuit Court in 2017, he said he was beaten by a group of fellow prisoners because he refused to join their gang.
The lawsuit accused jail staff members of “encouraging and failing to prevent the brutal attacks,” of “covering up the attacks … after their occurrence, and the failure to render aid to [ Wallace] despite the means and duty to do so.” The complaint said the state “maintained a policy of unconstitutional and unlawful supervision and abuse of authority” in the men’s facility.
Although a circuit court jury awarded Wallace $10 million for the state’s violation of his constitutional rights and an additional $15 million for the state’s negligence, the judge in the case reduced the amount to $200,000, citing the requirements of the Maryland Tort Claims Act, which limits awards in some lawsuits.
In a ruling last summer, Maryland’s intermediate Court of Special Appeals largely agreed with the judge’s decision.
The next step would have been a ruling by the state Supreme Court. But neither side wanted to go that far. Wednesday’s action also ends a pending federal case.
Hansel called Wednesday’s settlement “a step toward fairness and equity” by the administration of Gov. Wes Moore (D), who was elected in November. “This governor, comptroller and treasurer are to be commended for taking a bigger step than anybody has taken in Maryland history,” Hansel said.
The unanimous vote came after Davis, the treasurer, rebuked the state’s Department of Public Safety and Corrections.
“Here we are again … $7 million,” he lamented, adding that the state cannot afford to continue paying out money for misdeeds by corrections officers who are not held personally responsible. “We keep spending taxpayer money — money that could be doing more productive [things],” he said. “We need this money, but instead we’re paying it out for improper, unacceptable behavior.”
Davis asked Corrections Secretary Carolyn Scruggs if any of the officers implicated in Wallace’s lawsuit were disciplined at the time of the assault. Scruggs said she reviewed jail records and found that no disciplinary action was taken. Since the incident, all the officers involved in the case have retired from the department, she said.
In the meeting room, Hansel asked Wallace if he wanted to say anything to Davis and Lierman.
With one hand, he slowly typed, “Thanks y’all.”
“We need this money, but instead we’re paying it out for improper, unacceptable behavior.” Maryland Treasurer Dereck E. Davis (D), rebuking the state’s department of Public Safety and corrections