Grant County and City of Moses Lake agree to $32,000 compensation and jail reforms in case involving seizure of prisoner’s prosthesis.
On November 1, 2003 Rodney Marchand was arrested for allegedly robbing the Zippy Cash store in Moses Lake, Washington. Among other details of the robbery, the police had a good witness, a store employee, who noticed that the robber limped. It was that limp that made Marchand a suspect, and this led to his arrest and his conviction. But the police and jail authorities in Moses Lake and Grant County didn’t just arrest Marchand. They seized his artificial leg, and kept it from him for nearly a year while he was incarcerated at the Grant County jail.
There were two really big problems with that and both are laid out, in vivid detail, in court papers that Center for Justice attorneys filed on Marchand’s behalf in federal court.
The first problem was that Moses Lake police didn’t have a warrant to seize the artificial leg. CFJ lawyers argued that the seizure violated Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The second big problem is the one that Rodney Marchand experienced for several months as he tried to navigate the close quarters of the Grant County jail without his missing leg. He suffered back injuries in falls, and in November 2003 badly injured his head and shoulders when his crutches slipped on a floor wet with mop water.
He was eventually given a wheelchair in the jail, but injuries from his falls and allegedly inadequate medical treatment at the jail made it impossible for him to propel himself in the chair without being in”significant pain.” He began to favor his non-amputated leg and injured it as a result. Moreover, by the time his leg was returned to him “dramatic changes had occurred in his stump and the prosthesis no longer fit.”
It wasn’t until after Marchand was transferred to the Airway Heights Correction Center in late 2004 that he was fitted with a new prosthesis and began receiving the physical therapy for the injuries he sustained in the Grant County Jail.
In addition to the charges that the illegal search and seizure of Marchand’s artificial leg violated the Fourth Amendment, the federal civil suit filed against Moses Lake and Grant County alleged that Marchand’s constitutional rights were violated by denying him adequate medical care while he was in jail. The suit further alleged his treatment violated state law against discrimination and resulted in common law medical negligence.
Under the settlement with the City of Moses Lake and Grant County that was finalized this week:
*Rodney Marchand will receive $32,000.
*The Center for Justice will receive a yet to be determined amount in costs and legal fees.
Furthermore, Grant County agrees:
*To install handrails next to toilets in 10 percent of its typical county jail cells.
*To install handrails next to all toilets in the medical unit.
*To install anti-skid strips in each of the handicap accessible shower units at the jail.
*To make sure all jail wheelchairs are in working order, including functioning brakes.
*To submit itself to thorough review by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.
*To put $1,000 per year for five years into an account to be used by jail medical staff for additional training.
*To put $1,500 per year for five years into an account that Grant County Commissioners can draw on to fund improvements recommended via the review by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.
Rodney Marchand was released from the Airway Heights Correctional Center in late May. He returned to Moses Lake where he lives with young adult children and his sister. He’s recently begun work in a new shop where he works renovating cars and motorcycles. Tomorrow he’s scheduled to receive a new, carbon-fiber prosthesis for his leg.
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