By Tonya Alanez
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — A former Broward County Jail inmate who says he must use a wheelchair after deputies severely beat him during a strip search at the main jail, is suing former sheriff Ken Jenne, Sheriff Al Lamberti and four former deputies.
The May 2004 strip-search incident landed Alvin Bell in criminal court charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. After a trial last year, a jury instead convicted Bell, 34, of misdemeanor resisting without violence.
Bell’s lawsuit alleges that he and Deputy Gene Miller got into an altercation, and three other deputies retaliated by severely beating, punching and kicking him while he was shackled and handcuffed.
It also says Jenne gave investigators false information about the incident.
Jenne is serving a federal sentence of a year and day for mail-fraud conspiracy and income-tax evasion at a Virginia penitentiary.
Copyright 2008 South Florida Sun-Sentinel