County pays record settlement in jail-death lawsuit
Tron Nick
Inmate was Hog-Tied and Beaten
Jefferson County has agreed to pay a record $1.6 million to settle a lawsuit filed over an inmate's death while in retraints at the county jail. At issue was the 2001 death of Kevin Wayne Bledsoe, 23. His parents sued the county in federal court, alleging he was the victim of excessive force and gross mishandling by officers. "Kevin Bledsoe lost his life after members of the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, tied him up in a controversial 'hog-tie' position using a homemade rope, put a hood over his injured and bleeding head, brought him to the Jefferson County jail rather than to a hospital, and held him face down on the floor of an isolation cell until he suddenly went limp and lost consciousness," the lawsuit says. Instead of getting him medical aid, the officers removed his clothing and left him lying face down in a pool of blood, the lawsuit said. Bledsoe was arrested after a fight in a supermarket parking lot. He had recently moved to Port Hadlock from Texas. [
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