By C1 Staff
SCOTTS BLUFF COUNTY, Neb. — The mother of Correctional Officer Amanda Baker is suing the county, the jail and several staff members for “deliberate indifference” in the death of her daughter.
The Star Herald reports that the Julie Bazler’s suit accuses defendants Detention Center director Ron Johns, supervisor Veronica Camarillo and former supervisor Mark Botzki of gambling with officers’ lives through budget cuts and ignoring obvious dangers.
The suit claims the jail is understaffed and that officers are undertrained, creating an unsafe work environment for staff involved.
Bazler also states in the suit that administrators withheld important information that would affect the safety of officers, including information that Dylan Cardeilhac, the teenage inmate who strangled Baker to death, had been separated from the other inmates for “violent misconduct.”
She alleges that Botzki directed Baker to go to the inmate’s cell after he called for assistance, but did not immediately summon aide when Baker was attacked.
Bazler, represented by Maren Chaloupka, seeks to change the worker’s compensation system, which Chaloupka describes as grossly inadequate as a means of pressuring employers to provide reasonably safe working conditions.
Bazler is also asking for punitive and general compensatory damages and is seeking a jury trial.
The county declined to comment on the suit.