The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday upheld a Beaumont jury’s decision to make Orange County pay for damages to the family of a jail inmate who died in custody.
The total judgment against the county was about $2.9 million, including $440,000 to pay for the legal expenses of the inmate’s family. The jury awarded $1.5 million to the family for the pain and suffering of 41-year-old Robert Montano, who died in October 2011 in the Orange County Jail.
The court of appeals vacated $917,000 of the jury’s decision and is sending it back to the U.S. district judge to make a new assessment.
The court of appeals decision said the county had a pervasive pattern of serious deficiencies in providing for Montano’s basic human needs.
Testimony in the Beaumont federal court trial showed Montano died of renal failure connected with not having food or water for four and a half days. Documents and testimony showed deputies assumed, without proof, he had consumed ‘bath salt’ drugs. However, Montano had a history of mental illness and schizophrenia.
He was placed in a glass room called “the bubble” and paper was taped over the window so staff could not see him. He was left there for four and a half days with no toilet or sink. Food was shoved through a slot though he didn’t eat.
The Beaumont law firm Bernsen and Bernsen represented the Montano family.
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