Orange County will offer a former prisoner in the county jail $135,000 as a settlement in his lawsuit against the county. The Commissioners Court Tuesday approved the recommendation of Assistant County Attorney Doug Manning to make the offer to Jerry Carthell to settle his case against Orange County.
The incident regarding the lawsuit involved Carthell allegedly being slammed onto a concrete floor as he was being booked into the Orange County Jail for public intoxication in January of 2015. Former Orange County jailer Brian David Lee was later found guilty of misdemeanor assault on a prisoner, and a jury gave him 30 days in the county jail for the incident.
Manning could not give an exact date when the county’s offer will be heard. He said that the next week will be taken up with filing paperwork and making phone calls to arrange the settlement.
The Commissioners Court approved Tuesday the Sheriff’s Office applying for a state Criminal Justice Division grant which will be used to purchase rifle resistant body armor. Sheriff Keith Merritt told the Commissioners that his office is still working up the request for the grant, and a resolution will be submitted next week to the Court for its approval before applying for the grant. The deadline is September 6 to file for the grant which has no matching funds for the county to meet.
The Commissioners signed off on the contract with AT&T for equipment to be used in the network serving the Courthouse and other county offices. The cost will be $1,167.78 a month.
The Commissioners Court approved paying the bills totaling $1,020,880 for the last week. The bulk of the amount was the $815,232 paid to Way Companies as their fifth payment for the renovations they are doing to the Courthouse and other county buildings as part of an energy efficiency program. Ken Kelsey with Way indicated last week the company should be completing the whole project by the end of October.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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