By Lisa Trigg
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Vigo County officials have been asked to provide public records pertaining to a former employee’s claims that inmates at the Vigo County Jail have recently been subjected to beatings and brutalities while in custody.
The former employee, Kim Hawkins, filed a complaint in federal court against Vigo County Sheriff Greg Ewing and other county officials on Wednesday, claiming that Hawkins was wrongfully fired as a whistleblower because he expressed concern about alleged mistreatment of some inmates in the Vigo County Jail.
The Tribune-Star has filed records requests with Vigo County Sheriff Greg Ewing, County Attorney Michael Wright and County Auditor Tim Seprodi asking for personnel and inmate information, as well as a list of county-paid medical bills stemming from the alleged brutality.
Ewing has been unavailable for comment this week because of a previously scheduled vacation.
Meanwhile, Hawkins and his attorney, Michael Sutherlin of Indianapolis, have released the names of three people who filed lawsuits against the county, claiming abuse in the jail. Two of those suits have been settled, and one remains pending.
All three of the people named – Megan Nelson, Michael James and Dylan Sinn – have lengthy criminal histories, which include multiple incidents of violence against police and civilians.
Ewing’s office has received requests for information about the employment of Hawkins, who was hired by prior Sheriff Jon Marvel as an assistant jail commander for the Vigo County Jail in October 2007. Hawkins worked at the jail until his employment was terminated by Ewing in December 2013.
Marvel was contacted by the Tribune-Star on Friday, but declined to comment about the lawsuit because Vigo County is named as a defendant, and Marvel is an elected county commissioner.
Hawkins previously served as sheriff in Vermillion County from 1983 to 1990 and again from 1999 to 2006. He has claimed that he was seen “as being too friendly or lenient toward the inmates” in the Vigo County Jail and that when he “reported various instances of excessive force and abuse by jail officers … he was rebuked or ignored.”
Here are some details about the three lawsuits, the inmates in whose behalf they were filed and their dispositions:
• Megan Nelson, 31, claims in her lawsuit that on March 11, 2013, she was arrested by Terre Haute Police officer Jessie Chambers, who “unnecessarily, excessively and unreasonably beat her with his night stick.”
Nelson also claims that jail officer Casey Hayne “slammed” her to the cement floor of the booking area of the jail, knocking Nelson unconscious and giving her a concussion. “She was heard to remark that she thought she had killed Ms. Nelson,” the lawsuit claims, without attributing the source of the comment.
The lawsuit states that jail officer Shawn Burns also grabbed Nelson and assisted in taking her forcefully to the cement floor. Nelson was also placed in a restraining chair with straps on her arms and legs.
The complaint goes on to say that Nelson was later taken to Terre Haute Regional Hospital where an X-ray of her head determined she had a head injury and a concussion.
Named as defendants in the Nelson lawsuit, which was filed by Sutherlin as her attorney in Vigo Superior Court 1, are Ewing, jail officers Hayne and Burns and jail commander Charley Funk, THPD officer Chambers, health care employees Steve Bell and Susan Streeter and the City of Terre Haute.
Nelson is currently serving a two-year prison sentence at the Rockville Correctional Facility on convictions for resisting law enforcement and for driving while intoxicated. She has been booked into the Vigo County Jail on 11 occasions between April 2006, and September 2013. Nelson has been arrested on charges including possession of a controlled substance, battery on police, disorderly conduct, public intoxication, resisting arrest and battery by bodily waste.
• Michael James filed a complaint against Ewing and multiple jail officers in January 2013. That lawsuit was resolved through mediation in April 2015, with an undisclosed settlement.
A Tribune-Star request has been made to the Vigo County Clerk’s Office to examine that court file.
Jail booking records show that Nelson has been booked into the jail on 27 occasions from January 2003 through June 2014. Arrest charges include multiple counts of domestic battery, driving as a habitual traffic violator, invasion of privacy, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, public intoxication, driving while intoxicated, false informing, neglect of a dependent, and several warrants for failure to appear in court.
• Dylan Sinn filed his complaint against Ewing and six jail employees – including officer Kim Hawkins – in October 2011 in federal court. Sinn claimed that on May 19, 2011, he was assaulted by officers Moye and Craig Barnett. In his handwritten statement, Sinn claimed that Moye grabbed and restrained Sinn’s arm through the feeding slot of the cellblock, causing injury to Sinn’s arms, shoulders, hands and fingers. He also claims that he filled out an inmate grievance form about the incident, and he was notified that an investigation was being conducted, but he was later moved to another facility.
That federal lawsuit was settled in early 2015.
Sinn has been booked into the Vigo County Jail on seven occasions from August 2004 through June 2015 on charges that include possession of a controlled substance, criminal recklessness, battery on police, disorderly conduct, public intoxication, intimidation, possession of a knife on school property, driving while intoxicated, possession of marijuana, dealing cocaine, domestic battery and criminal confinement.
Sinn has served three separate prison sentences in the Indiana Department of Correction, and was most recently released from custody in February. He also filed a civil lawsuit against the Indiana Department of Correction in May 2015. Again, Sutherlin is his attorney in that Marion County Superior Court case.