Star Tribune
$12.2 million settlement for man who lost limbs after ‘deliberate indifference’ by Scott County Jail
A man who lost his arms and suffered a stroke after being withheld medical care while an inmate at the Scott County Jail will receive $12.2 million in a settlement that his attorneys said is the largest in state history for someone sustaining jail-related injuries.
“I’d rather have my hands than anything,” Terrance Dwayne Winborn said in a video clip about his daily life shown at a news conference Wednesday while flanked by his attorneys. “[My condition] makes me feel helpless sometimes, but I keep on pushing.”
Winborn, of Marshall, Minn., suffered “severe and permanent injuries” and nearly died due to a bacterial infection he sustained while in the Scott County Jail for about 40 hours.
The lawsuit alleges that Scott County Jail employees — including a registered nurse on duty — acted with “deliberate indifference” when they failed to get him appropriate and timely medical care. In doing so, his constitutional rights were violated, they said.
Scott County also failed to report the case to the Minnesota Department of Corrections within 10 days as required by law, his attorneys said.
The Scott County Board voted unanimously to approve the settlement at its Tuesday meeting. It’s not final until approved by the judge, said Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar .
“The board has determined that the settlement is in the best interests of the county to avoid the risks of a trial and uncertainty of a jury verdict,” Hocevar said at the meeting.
Hocevar had no additional comment.
It includes $10.2 million from the county and $2 million from the county’s insurer, Minnesota Counties Intergovernmental Trust (MCIT).
Other recent Minnesota lawsuits related to jail injuries or death have netted $3 million or less.
‘Something nobody wants to go through’
Winborn, who was 59 at the time, was taken to jail on August 27 just after midnight for “various driving and alcohol-related infractions,” the lawsuit said.
Though he entered the jail walking and talking, he could do neither just 39 hours later after contracting a bacterial infection, said Katie Bennett, an attorney with Robins Kaplan representing Winborn.
His symptoms started with vomiting and later progressed to an inability to stand up, extensive pain and trouble breathing, according to jail records. He eventually fell off his bunk bed due to his poor condition but no care was rendered by a nurse on duty.
At the end of his second day in jail, Winborn was finally taken to St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, though he was driven by a police officer rather than being transported by ambulance.
In an email, Debra Schneider, the registered nurse, said he “had a rough day today.”
Photographs of Winborn’s condition at the hospital show his raw and scabbed legs, unrecognizable as human limbs. A photo of his scalp shows skin missing and blood-red exposed flesh.
He spent a total of 122 days in three hospitals, including 59 days on a ventilator. He experienced multiple organ failure. His arms had to be amputated below the elbow due to sepsis. His skin and body have drastically changed in appearance due to damage from purpuric lesions, the lawsuit said.
“It’s something that nobody wants to go through,” Winborn said.
In the video, Winborn demonstrates how he eats with the help of a prosthetic. He describes it as “hard work,” sharing that he picks specific foods — fish sticks, soup — because it’s easier.
Many complications from his injuries persist, he said, though he tries to do everything he used to do.
“I always tell myself, you can’t just lay in the bed,” he said.
Attorneys from Robins Kaplan allege that not only was Winborn’s treatment at the jail troubling, it’s part of a pattern for Scott County.
At times, important evidence was never recorded. In other instances, it was deliberately deleted, attorneys said.
The jail has a history of not complying with jail policy and state rules related to conducting and recording well-being checks on inmates, Bennett said.
The Minnesota Department of Corrections has repeatedly reprimanded Scott County Jail for inadequate checks on inmates, such as in Winborn’s case, she said.
In an example from a jail log on the morning of August 28, 2020, Winborn’s well-being check was recorded as starting and ending at exactly the same time and 20 other inmates were checked at that time as well.
Several reports that should have been written during his stay were missing entirely.
There’s also no video available from Winborn’s time at the jail — despite cameras’ installation in at least six different areas — because it was deleted by jail staff, said Greta Wiessner, another Robins Kaplan attorney .
“As a jail knows, when litigation is reasonably foreseeable, video has to be saved,” Wiessner said. “We argued … that it was an intentional failure to preserve the video.”
The lawsuit also alleges that the Scott County Jail has a history of “seeking less-expensive medical care for inmates, including eschewing emergent care even when an inmate’s life-threatening condition called for it.”
Bennett said the firm chose to take Winborn’s case partly because of the severity of his injuries.
“We were really glad to be able to help him,” she said.
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and her daughter were among the throngs Friday as President Joe Biden delivered the apology that many Indigenous Americans thought would never come.
“I think he really said the things that people have been waiting to hear for generations, acknowledged just the horror and trauma of literally having our children stolen from our communities,” said Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. “It’s a powerful first step towards healing.”
Hundreds of boarding schools operated in the 19th and 20th centuries, separating Indigenous children from their families and forcing them to assimilate to European ways. Many children were abused, and at least 973 died, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Other Minnesotans reacted similarly to Flanagan, saying they welcomed the apology but that additional action is needed to help Indigenous people move forward.
Anton Treuer, a professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, wrote in a newsletter that the apology was “a welcome first step on the journey to healing.”
“There is no way to truly right historical injustices for the children buried at Carlisle, Haskell, and other schools, but these words set a new tone for the country and will help heal the anguish so many Natives have carried for so long,” Treuer wrote. “It gives me hope that we can come together to reconcile and heal our troubled nation.”
Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, called Biden’s apology encouraging.
“This recognition of past wrongdoings is an important step towards healing relationships between the United States and the sovereign nations affected by these past systems,” Kunesh said in a statement. “This dark period of American history must be remembered and taught.”
“I have done everything in my power to remedy this situation, and it continues to get more and more violent by the day,” Moturi wrote. “There have been numerous times when I’ve seen Sawchak outside and contacted law enforcement, and there was no response. I am not confident in the pursuit of Sawchak given that Sawchak attacked me, MPD officers had John detained, and despite an HRO and multiple warrants — they still let him go.”
On Friday, five City Council members sent a letter to Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Brian O’Hara expressing their “utter horror at MPD’s failure to protect a Minneapolis resident from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
Council Members Andrea Jenkins, Elliott Payne, Aisha Chughtai, Jason Chavez and Robin Wonsley went on to allege that police had failed to submit reports to the County Attorney’s Office despite threats being made with weapons, and at times while Sawchak screamed racial slurs. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
The council members also contend in their letter that the MPD told the County Attorney’s Office that police did not intend to execute the warrant for “reasons of officer safety.”
At a Friday afternoon news conference at MPD’s Fifth Precinct, O’Hara said police had been working to arrest Sawchak since at least April, but “no Minneapolis police officers have had in-person contact with that suspect since the victim in this case has been calling us.” The chief pointed out that Sawchak is mentally ill, has guns and refuses to cooperate “in the dozens of times that police officers have responded to the residence.”
O’Hara put aside the option to carry out “a high-risk warrant based on these factors [and] the likelihood of an armed, violent confrontation where we may have to use deadly force with the suspect.” The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside his home, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
ROCHESTER – The Federal Transit Administration has green-lighted an $85 million grant supporting the development of the city’s planned Link Bus Rapid Transit system.
The FTA formally announced the grant on Friday during a ceremonial check presentation outside of the Mayo Civic Center, one of the seven stops planned for the bus line. The federal grant will cover about 60% of the project’s estimated $143.4 million price tag, with the remaining funds coming from Destination Medical Center, the largest public-private development project in state history.
Set to go live in 2026, the 2.8-mile Link system will connect downtown Rochester, including Mayo Clinic’s campuses, with a proposed “transit village” that will include parking, hundreds of housing units and a public plaza. The bus line will be the first of its kind outside the Twin Cities — with service running every five minutes during peak hours.
“That means you may not even need to look at a schedule,” said Veronica Vanterpool, deputy administrator for the FTA. “You can just show up at your transit stop and expect the next bus to come in a short time. That is a game changer and a life-transformational experience in transit for those people who are using it and relying on it.”
The planned Second Street corridor is already one of the busiest roads in Rochester, carrying more than 21,800 vehicles a day, and city planners have talked for years about ways to reduce traffic congestion in the city’s downtown. Local officials estimate that the transit line, which will rely on a fleet of all-electric buses, will handle 11,000 riders on its first day of operation and save eight city blocks of parking.
Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people gathered on Friday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said the project shows Rochester is thinking strategically about how it handles growth.
“If you just plan the business expansion, and you don’t have the workforce, you don’t have the child care, the housing or the transit, it’s not going to work very well as a lot of communities across the nation have found,” Klobuchar said.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings