Woman claims she was slammed in lawsuit against Montgomery County Jail

Marsha Pate-Strickland claims that while an inmate at the Montgomery County Jail two years ago, she wanted to exchange her juice for milk.

That’s when the 60-year-old — according to federal lawsuit filed against the county, Sheriff Phil Plummer and others — was ordered to stand up and then forcefully grabbed by corrections officer David Stemp and “violently swung” around before her right shoulder and arm were slammed to the floor.

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Pate-Strickland immediately complained of an injury and defendant Greg Mills, a nurse for Naphcare, Inc., performed a visual inspection “and concluded that she suffered no injury” because the shoulder did not appear to be “out of place” and handed Pate-Strickland an ice pack, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit filed in Dayton’s U.S. District Court claims Mills refused to send Pate-Strickland to a hospital and that she complained to other jail staff. Naphcare, Inc. is the contracted provider for medical care in the jail.

RELATED: County to pay $375,000 to settle jail pepper-spray lawsuit

Stemp sought medical attention at an area hospital after her release from jail and was diagnosed with a “comminuted right humeral head/neck fracture,” according to the lawsuit.

Pate-Strickland was booked in Sept. 7, 2015 on a misdemeanor assault charge that was dropped, according to the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office. She was released Sept. 9, according to jail records. The lawsuit said Pate-Strickland was released Sept. 10, 2015.

RELATED: 9 lawsuits against Montgomery County Jail personnel

The lawsuit claims that the actions by Stemp were “brutal and excessive force” and “cruel and unusual.” The suit claims Pate-Strickland’s injuries are permanent and debilitating and that she’s been required to seek various therapies.

A 2015 list of Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office use of force reports obtained by this news organization shows that on Sept. 8, 2015, an officer used a “take down/balance displacement” against an inmate because of “safety risk to self/others; ignored verbal direction/passively resisted; displayed physical danger cues; aggressively resisted.”

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Montgomery County recently settled a lawsuit brought by Amber Swink for $375,000. Swink, like Pate-Strickland a client of Douglas Brannon’s, was pepper-sprayed by then-Sgt. Judith Sealey while in a restraint chair in November 2015.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office has been contacted and asked for comment. Several other lawsuits against jail personnel are pending, including one brought by David Cooper set for mediation today.

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