Prisoner's lawsuit says it was too easy to escape

[babylonsister]

Prisoner's lawsuit says it was too easy to escape

He fell and hurt himself while trying to rappel down the side of a Colorado jail. He blames his injuries on inadequate security.
By DeeDee Correll, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 13, 2008


DENVER -- Scott Anthony Gomez Jr. made his first break from the Pueblo County Jail two years ago.

He pushed up a ceiling tile, hoisted himself into the ventilation system and climbed until he reached a roof. Then he shinnied down the wall on bedsheets fashioned into a rope.

Caught two days later, he was back in his cell.

The next time, Gomez again pried loose a ceiling tile and vanished into the guts of the building. But as he tried to rappel on bedsheets down the side of the 85-foot building, he fell.

Now the would-be Houdini is suing the sheriff of the southern Colorado county, saying authorities caused his injuries by making it too easy to fly the coop.

"Defendants . . . did next to nothing to ensure that the jail was secure and the plaintiff could not escape," says Gomez's lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount of money.

Filed this month in federal court in Denver, the case has attracted attention statewide and on the Internet, mostly from people chuckling and fuming at Gomez's legal efforts.

more...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-jailescape13jan13,1,1452469.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=7&cset=true

[thunder rising]

1. If you're going to lock somebody up ... lock them up

He's got a point. You cannot expect a person to remain confined on their own. You cannot even tell a child to stay for more than a few minutes.

[Catch22Dem]

2. What???

When you get hurt doing something illegal, you kinda lose your right to sue.

[baby_mouse]

3. Er...

It's not a very GOOD point, is it?

[-..__...]

4. Too bad he didn't tie the bedsheet around his neck instead.

[wuushew]

8. Why would you wish death on anybody?

Was he a convicted rapist or murderer?

Many felonies are victimless crimes mind you.

[angrycarpenter]

5. our president does the same thing

When something bad happens to him he blames the sheetmaker for the lousy threadcount.

[Wizard777]

7. Not really. Bush would veto the sheet purchase order.

Then blame the democrats in Congress for him not having any sheets.

[Canuckistanian]

6. Tsk! What has happened to standards these days?

Where are the guards with rubber hoses and Tommy guns?

Do these prison contractors NOT know how to build a simple 4'X4' wooden box that sits out in the hot sun all day?

No wonder prisoners these days are so confused.

I think that "Cool Hand Luke" should have been denounced as a "soft-on-crime" diatribe.