Kentucky inmate who dated deputy’s wife, beaten in jail wins $2.2 million in lawsuit
Published 5:42 am Monday, July 12, 2021
A former Kentucky inmate has been awarded $2.2 million in a federal lawsuit that accused a deputy jailer of ordering inmates to beat him because he had dated the deputy’s wife.
A jury returned the verdict in the suit filed by Joshua Reece, the Courier Journal reported. Reece suffered a brain injury and facial fractures in the 2015 attack at the Shelby County Detention Center shortly after he was jailed on shoplifting charges.
Garry Adams, one of Reece’s lawyers, said Shelby County will have to pay the damages because ex-jail officer William Anthony Carey was acting within the scope of his employment.
Carey was fired, pleaded guilty in state court to official misconduct and aiding and abetting the assault, then was convicted of federal civil rights violations. He is serving a four-year sentence at a federal prison in New Jersey.
Adams said Reece had dated Carey’s wife years earlier.