By Jeff Adelson
The Times-Picayune
ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — Lawyers dueled Monday over whether St. Tammany Parish deputies failed to protect an inmate who lost his eye in an attack at the parish jail three years ago.
Edward McCray, who was in jail after being booked with murder, was attacked twice in three days in August 2005, his attorneys told a jury in U.S. District Court. But St. Tammany Parish deputies said they used proper procedures in the case and were turned down when they offered protection to McCray after the first attack.
The lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, and legal fees, is being heard before federal Magistrate Karen Roby in New Orleans. The suit individually names St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain, Maj. Marlin Peachey, then the jail’s warden, and Terry Crouch, a corrections officer at the time who has since resigned from the agency.
In August 2005, McCray allegedly bludgeoned Mallery “Mal” McGee with a hammer outside McGee’s Folsom-area house. He was booked into St. Tammany Parish Jail in Covington with second-degree murder on Aug. 9.
Ten days later, McCray was moved from a juvenile holding cell, where he was being treated for dog bites, into the general population of the prison. That day, he was attacked by at least one other inmate, Randy Johnson, who punched him in the face and fractured his jaw.
Three days later another inmate, Marlon Brumfield, stabbed McCray in the eye with a homemade knife. McCray lost his eye in the attack and now wears a prosthetic.
During his opening statement, McCray’s attorney, Keith Couture, acknowledged that the legal system had already meted out punishment in the case. Brumfield pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated battery several months after stabbing McCray.
Couture distinguished between the legitimacy of McCray’s incarceration and the lack of protection allegedly offered by corrections officials, suggesting that negligence amounting to a civil rights violation had cost his client his eye.
“Prison’s not cruel and unusual,” Couture said. “But not being protected while you’re there, that’s cruel and unusual.”
Brad Lewis, the attorney for the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, suggested that responsibility for McCray’s injuries lies withBrumfield, who is expected to take the stand today.
“The attempt here is to hold people who are not responsible. That’s turning the civil justice system on his head,” Lewis said in his opening statement, prompting an objection from Couture, who said the attorney misstated the law and the nature McCray’s complaints.
McCray and his attorneys said Monday that after the first attack, McCray asked to be placed in protective custody in either an isolated holding cell or the jail’s medical facilities. They said these requests were turned down by St. Tammany deputies.
Couture also has questioned deputies about the amount of violence in the St. Tammany Jail and the wisdom of placing a murder suspect in general population, where relatives or friends of the victim might seek vengeance.
Deputies testified Monday, however, that McCray turned down an offer to be placed in protective custody. “How can we hold Mr. Crouch liable for not keeping him out of harm when Mr. McCray didn’t realize it himself?” Lewis asked in his opening statement, referring to the deputy who was on shift when McCray was returned to his cell.
The case saw Sheriff’s Office attorneys struggling at some points to introduce other details about McCray’s criminal history and current situation.
McCray, who was led into court in shackles, was found incompetent to stand trial in a rape case in Washington Parish and is now being held in the Eastern Louisiana Medical Hospital, Strain said. However, attempts by Lewis to introduce details of McCray’s current legal status have been blocked by objections.
The hearing continues today and is expected to conclude Wednesday.
Copyright 2008 The Times-Picayune